History Series / TheJoeSchmoShow

''The Joe Schmo Show'' was at once a RealityShow and a spoof of reality shows. The first season centered around Matt Kennedy Gould, a regular guy who is selected as a contestant on the reality game show ''Lap of Luxury''. What he didn't realize, however, is that everybody else around him was an actor, specifically selected to play a reality-show archetype such as "The RichBitch", "The [[CampGay Gay Guy]]", "The [[{{Jerkass}} Asshole]]", and "The SmarmyHost". The scenes in the house were cut with standard reality-show style interviews, both from Matt and from the actors, who would describe how they felt about keeping the charade going on this guy. (Once they got to know Gould, and realized how much a truly nice and upright a guy he was, fooling him became emotionally harder and harder for the actors involved.) Despite several close calls, Matt didn't find out the truth until TheReveal in the season finale. After this, the series was rerun under the title ''Mo' Schmo'', with Matt giving a running commentary over it now that he knew the whole thing was fake. (Though this only lasted for four episodes before Spike pulled these repeats due to sagging ratings.) Future television and movie star Creator/KristenWiig appeared on the first ''Joe Schmo'' in her first big role as Dr. Pat, the incompetent therapist.

** In Season 2 the same pair of actors played both Austin's parents and Piper's parents. (The show could get away with this because the first dinner was only with the male "contestants" and the second was only with the females. Part of the reveal for the final episode was when they called for Austin and Pipers' parents to come in, and only these two actors showed up.)

* {{Beat}}: Derek does this in the second season just after the cast has watched Cammy's ''Porked 'n Beans'' video. "I'm sorry we had see that (''beat'') on such a small monitor."

''Joe Schmo 2'', the second season, brought in 2 schmoes, Tim Walsh and Ingrid Weise, for a parody reality relationship show, ''Last Chance for Love''. This season was often criticized for taking the premise ''way'' over the top, and for practically daring the schmoes to figure out the truth (which one, Ingrid, eventually did; they kept things going by having her join the actors and bringing in a new Schmo, Amanda Naughton). As well, neither Tim nor Ingrid was really as likeable as Matt was. Because of this, season 2 never really did quite as well as season 1, {{ratings}}- or acclaim-wise.

-->'''Matt Kennedy Gould''': Hold the phone. Are you an actor? Tell me... just say it.
-->'''Brian Keith Etheridge''': I am.
-->'''Matt Kennedy Gould''': '''''What the (''bleep'') is going on?!''''' Someone fill me in!

* EatThat: A good portion of the drama in one of the episodes of the first season focused around one of these. Matt Kennedy Gould said he was specifically assured before the show started that he wouldn't be put in a situation like this, yet one of the latter episodes featured a gross-eating challenge. The dishes were all supposedly ForeignQueasine, such as monkey testicles or moufflon eyeballs, up until Matt's dish, which was claimed to be canine feces. Matt, having a well-known gag reflex, was immediately grossed out, but then seemed to decide that it couldn't possibly be real, until he was assured by a producer that it was. (He later revealed that he had so grown to trust the producers that the fact that none of them would even look at him led him to believe that it really was real.) Having refused to eat the canine feces, Matt met with a fake NetworkExecutive who told him that the challenge could still be won if he got Ashleigh and Molly to either kiss or go topless. Because GirlOnGirlIsHot.

* ShockingElimination: [[RunningGag Poked fun at]] by including the phrase "the most shocking elimination yet" in several of the promos either going to break or at the end of the episode.

-->-- Matt learns the truth.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Parodied when the Network Executive in Season 1 insists that [[GirlOnGirlIsHot Ashleigh and Molly kiss]] to goose the ratings. This is one of the moments that even the GenreBlind Matt Gould picked up on as fake.

* BlatantLies: In at least a couple of instances, the actors couldn't keep their stories straight and had to come up with complicated explanations to try to smooth things over. Generally, they managed to get away with it, except in the case of Ingrid, who managed to see through enough of the lies to pretty much piece the entire sham together.

* HypnoFool: In ''Joe Schmo 2'', Bryce hoped to turn Piper into this using the hypnotic command "mockingbird," but his hypnosis was totally washed up.

* NonGameplayElimination: A number of these were created for plot purposes. In the first season, Dr. Pat accepted $25,000 to "voluntarily exit" the program. The votes revealed that The Hutch would have been eliminated had she not left. The Hutch was later ejected from the program for making threats against another contestant, but returned on a legal technicality and went on to "win." In the second season, Bryce the Stalker was eliminated via the normal elimination, but invited back to the show. He was then ejected later on for supposedly killing the falcon, Montecore. Also, Eleanor "the weeper" TookALevelInBadass and quit the show after Austin had treated her badly. In the third season, LV up and quits for no particular reason.

** In Season 2 the same pair of actors played both Austin's parents and Piper's parents. (The show could get away with this because the first dinner was only with the male "contestants" and the second was only with the females.)

* SerialEscalation: How over-the-top and stereotypical will Joe Schmo's competition be? Could any challenge be more insanely sadistic than the last one? And will any elimination ceremony top the last one in terms of sheer ridiculousness?

* AmbiguouslyGay: Gerald (Season 2).

--> '''Karlee''': [''bored, disinterested''] I know.

* BerserkButton: Kip only wants to see pictures of positivity in his photo album. He doesn't want to see anything negative, like, say, photos of someone else's buttcheeks.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Skylar, who was supposedly this innocent single mom whose husband died in a freak cement-pouring accident, but the husband was actually alive and the whole innocent/naive thing was an act.

* TheBully: Hutch was this to Kip in the show's original season, messing up his photo album, teasing him about not wanting to go in the pool and threatening to shove him in the pool and such. Part of the appeal of Matt was him standing up for Kip and saying that he understands about phobias and such.

* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Matt tried to work on making some reality show alliances and voting strategies, but given that everyone else was an actor working from a shared script. Not only that, but failure was always the only option in any of the games on any season that were rigged against the schmo.

* {{Fanservice}}: Particularly attractive female castmembers winding up in bikinis in all three seasons.

* InnocentFanserviceGirl: Molly.

* NonGameplayElimination: A number of these were created for plot purposes. In the first season, Dr. Pat accepted $25,000 to "voluntarily exit" the program. The votes revealed that The Hutch would have been eliminated had she not left. The Hutch was later ejected from the program for making threats against another contestant, but returned on a legal technicality and went on to "win." In the second season, Bryce the Stalker was eliminated via the normal elimination, but invited back to the show. He was then ejected later on for supposedly killing the falcon, Montecore. In the third season, LV up and quits for no particular reason.

* RunningGag: Towards the end of one of the episodes of ''Joe Schmo 2'' one the producers revealed that Everett the frog had been killed by Montecore the falcon. Ingrid suggested a moment of a silence and a memorial was shown on-screen to Everett. In the next episode, Bryce, the owner of the frog returned, but before a certain point, everyone kept avoiding the issue of Everett's death. However, the characters kept working in subtle references to Everett and, whenever they did, the memorial was shown again.

* VotedOffTheIsland: Well, not really.

* YouLookFamiliar: Ralph Garman, the only recurring castmember, plays three different Smarmy Hosts in three seasons.

** Chase, from season 3, really is scared of snakes, and the producers decided to exploit that in the heart-monitor challenge.

* ThisIsACompetition: Several of the supposed contestants. Also, Chase, the schmo of the third season.
* TokenMinority: Noting that contestants with an ethnic background typically tended to be eliminated first on reality-relationship shows, the producers decided to have a "black ball eviction ceremony" in the premiere episode of Season 2 in which several were eliminated before the program had even really gotten started.

''Joe Schmo 2'', the second season, brought in 2 schmoes, Tim Walsh and Ingrid Weise, for a parody reality relationship show, ''Last Chance for Love''. This season was often criticized for taking the premise ''way'' over the top, and for practically daring the schmoes to figure out the truth (which one, Ingrid, eventually did; they kept things going by having her join the actors and bringing in a new Schmo, Amanda). As well, neither Tim nor Ingrid was really as likeable as Matt was. Because of this, season 2 never really did quite as well as season 1, {{ratings}}- or acclaim-wise.