Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (MXC), One Of TV's Greatest Treasures
It's so beautiful to look at and I laugh just as hard all these years later.
There was always one consistent thing, no matter what, in the early 2000s and that was you could watch both Most Extreme Elimination Challenge...
...and SlamBall at night on Spike TV.
(Fun fact, THE Coach Carter, Ken Carter, coached the Rumble… SlamBall was a cool sport that, looking back on it, might not have been as amazing as I thought it was as a 12-year-old.)
MXC had the best announcing duo in the game…
…the best-dressed host…
…and the coolest most perverted sideline reporter in sports.
For those who don't know, this show was based on a real thing called 'Takeshi's Castle' that aired in Japan from 1986 through 1990. This is what the real show looked and sounded like…
Then three friends in Los Angeles discovered the show, created a fake story and narrative around it, and dubbed English over the commentary to create one of the funniest things to ever air on American television…
(Don't watch this if you don't want to have the "secret sauce" and "magic" of the show ruined for you…)
The premise of each shot pit two groups of people up against each other, with some hilarious contestant names and backstories mixed in:
- Meat Handlers vs. Cartoon Voice Actors (aka Network Boss)
- Dairy Workers vs. Automobile Workers (aka Cows vs. Cars)
- Inventors vs. Ex-Child Actors
- Travel Industry vs. Circus Workers (aka Circus and Airlines)
- Physical Fitness vs. Music Industry
- Adult Entertainment vs. Home Improvement (aka Porn vs. Construction)
The rest is history. We were blessed with television and comedy gold.
I don't know if this show ever has a chance at a revival, but it would be nice to at least get the full series on one of the bigger streaming platforms (you can watch it on the service tubi currently). What I do know is that ABC produced a complete rip-off of the show called 'Wipeout' that even caught a heavy lawsuit from the makers of 'Takeshi's Castle'…
Not only not the same but also not funny.
Unfortunately, it isn't as easy to come by full episodes of this show as it used to be as Tokyo Broadcasting System has blocked a ton of the videos due to copyright reasons, but here is a high-quality full episode…