Pictured: Dave Benson Phillips on the Get Your Own Back studio set
Get Your Own Back was a children's TV Show that was primarily focused on children getting revenge on their grownups (usually parents, but grandparents, teachers, older siblings and other relations and acquaintances also appeared over the years) who have humiliated them in the past, with two children competing against each other (hindered by their adult) for the right to see their adult Covered in Gunge. The show ran from 1991 to 2004 on CBBC (though repeats persisted well into The New '10s), and was hosted by Dave Benson Phillips with Lisa Brockwell co hosting from 2001 - 2003.
Tropes in Get Your Own Back
- Bait-and-Switch: During the introduction of the 1996 Christmas special, Dave introduced the blue team's adult they wanted to gunge as Peter Simon, but when he arrived, Peter Simon told Dave that there were many letters saying that they didn't actually want to gunge Peter Simon, but rather... Dave Benson Phillips himself.
- Christmas Episode: Usually involved the children nominating celebrities as their adults instead, who on more than one occasion ended up being Dave Benson Phillips himself.note
- Clip Show: The 1998 Christmas Special was mostly a clip show of the 1998 series, and previous moments such as the gungings of Josie D'Arby, Tim Vincent, Paul Hendy, Peter Simon, Kirsten O'Brien and Mr. Blobby. The last one was what caused Mr Blobby to send Dave into the Gunk Dunk following him being found not guilty by the Jury made up of kids.
- Consolation Prize: If the child lost in the 1991 - 2000 series, they don't go away empty handed, instead, they get a GYOB Pack which usually consists of a shirt and a bag. In the 1994 series, they also get a gift from Dave himself and In the 1997 series, they get a picture of themselves and the other team which was taken before the recording started.
- Courtroom Episode: The 1998 Christmas Special. Instead of 2 contestants, it consists of Kirsten O'Brien and Mr Blobby, 2 celebrities who were gunged in 1997, putting Dave Benson Phillips on trial for his "crimes" against humiliating grownups, with a jury made up of kids from the studio audience.
- Covered in Gunge: The main premise of the show, in which the grownups are thrown into a vat of Gunge in the final round, otherwise known as the "Gunk Dunk". (In the 1991 - 1994 series, if the adult answered 5 questions correctly, the kid gets gunged as well and the 2000 series had a 50/50 prize choice where if the wrong lever is pulled, they get covered).
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- The 1991 Series had 3 teams instead of 2.
- In the early series the set (and the series' general aesthetic) was themed after a fairground (with the final round taking place in a dungeon), rather than the more generic gameshow set used in later series.
- In the first few series the grown ups played for points to avoid the gunk dunk. The 1991 series had 2 standalone games: the winner of the first dropped out, leaving the remaining 2 to battle it out in the final round to avoid the gunge. Next year the grown ups accumulated points across a number of rounds. This lasted for a few series, until it was reversed for the kids to do this in the more familiar format.
- The twist in the final round went through several incarnations; the earliest one involved the adult having to answer 5 questions,note and if they got all 5 questions right the child would get gunged as well (initially they were also seated above the gunge with the adult, later they were in a glass booth and just got an overhead gunging which was considerably less worse than what the adult would get seconds later). Later, there were three additional gungeings before the big one which the adult could also avoid by answering questions. The best-recognised version is the one where the adult getting the questions wrong would lead to the chair they were sitting in being cranked upwards, meaning when they finally got dunked it would happen from a greater height.
- Initially the winning team would go through to the Gunk Dunk round. The last few series changed this so both teams participated, but the child with the higher score would have their adult start already cranked one position up, and when they reached the highest level they would get dunked. (The format of the final round also changed, with the children answering questions to get their adults cranked higher.)
- Freudian Excuse: At the beginning of each show, the child gives an explanation on why they want to get their own back on the adult in question. Some of the excuses that the contestants have for getting their grown up on the show are sometimes absurd.
- Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: In earlier series, the adult is given a chance to gunge the kid instead. They are told this will prevent them from being gunged, but if they do succeed, it’s then revealed that kids can’t be in the Gunk Dunk without an adult, and so they’re thrown in anyway.
- Hold Up Your Score: One of the Chumps Challenge games from the original 1991 series is a round of karaoke where the 2 remaining teams have to sing a chosen song, and they are judged on how good their singing is by a panel of 3 children judges from the audience. As this was the round before the Gunk Dunk, the highest scoring team would be dropped out of the game, while the lowest scoring team goes through to the Gunk Dunk. Sadly this particular game had 2 obvious flaws. Firstly they were judging BOTH members of the team (who, don't forget, were actually playing against each other), which could have been rectified by having the kid team up with adult on opposite team (indeed, later series often did this). More fundamentally however, it often seemed they were voting against who they wanted to see gunged rather than the singing (case in point, Peter Simon on celebrity version).
- Kangaroo Court: The 1998 Christmas Special of Get Your Own Back. While the kids find Dave Benson Phillips not guilty, Kirsten O'Brien and Mr Blobby send him into the Gunk Dunk anyway.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: During the 1995 Gunk Dunk, the last piece of gunge to avoid was R.A.W. what does it stand for? "REALLY! AWFUL! WASTE!"
- Retired Game Show Element: The 1995 series introduced an element called "The Furnace", where the children had to bring along a prized possession and, as a penalty if they lost one of the games to their grownup, the possession would be burnt in The Furnace. This generated so much controversy that the BBC had to admit that the possessions weren't actually destroyednote and the child got it back after filming, and they edited it out of the remaining episodes of the series (it was even edited out of repeats of episodes previously shown to include it).
- In the first series there were 3 possible games for round 2: an obstacle race, a video game (known as a "Video Nasty") or a karaoke performance (see 'Hold Up Your Score' comments). The next few series always used the first of these. See above for flaws on karaoke game, presumed to be reasons for it's removal. Issues with the video game were it was difficult to follow (not helped by rather poor camera work) and didn't look particularly interesting or fun.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: On occasion, Dave will tell the grown ups that he can do whatever he likes to the grownup who is being humiliated because it's his show.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Seriously, why the fuck did they think it was cool to burn losing kids prized possessions in 1995? Wrong, just wrong.
This troper has ruined your life and you're fed up with it, Go on, Send him into the gunge! Pull the lever and Get Your Own Back!
