mgroves

Posts Tagged ‘match game’

From top left to bottom right, here’s who I think they are parodying in the below video:

• Pam Sumpter – Brett Somers
• Steven Nielson Perry – Charles Nelson Reilly
• Sarah Annette…Boob? – Random 70s bimbo in the “dummy seat”
• Nancy Nanjar? – Fannie Flagg
• Tipsey Bodet – Nipsey Russell
• Dirk the magician – I have no idea.

Why no Richard Dawson?

Not a great CNR impression, and they really focused on the “he’s obviously gay but acting like he’s not for the yuks and possibly the censors” angle. But it’s good to see Match Game parody!

If you’ve never seen Match Game, here’s a useful clip:

Brett Somers died on the morning of September 15, 2007 of stomach and colon cancer at her home in Westport, Connecticut.

Her obituary is available at BrettSomers.com.

Brett Somers, are you out there…?

Here’s who remains of the 6 Match Game All-Stars in the above cast:

• Betty White
• Fannie Flagg

Yikes.

I’ve recently “upgraded” my cable service to a digital HD-DVR box. This service comes with a “digital variety pack” of additional channels as well. One of them is GSN, the Game Show Network, which runs the best game show of all time: Match Game.

Match Game is a really simple game, but the real show is the zany rapport between all the celebrities and the host. The idea is that the host, Gene Rayburn reads a short sentence or two with one of the words omitted. The celebrities then write down a word that will fit in the blank, and the contestant must guess the word that they think will match the celebrities most often.

For instance, Rayburn might read, “Dumb Donald was soooo dumb, that when someone told him it was chilly outside, he grabbed his…BLANK.” The questions are usually written in such a way that the “blank” is some sort of double-entendre. In my example, most celebrities would probably write “spoon” on their cards, but some celebrities might write “bowl” or something.

Match game was featured in the VH1 show, “The 100 Most Unexpected Moments in TV History” (or something like that) for the following clip in which the celebrities and audience revolt against the judges.

Now that you have some idea what the Match Game is, I want to share one of my favorite MST3K sketches of all time. It’s a parody of Match Game: a “one-man show” in which Crow plays the host, Gene Rayburn, as well as an entire panel of the most well-known celebrities associated with the show. It’s called “Give ‘em Hell, blank”, and features a particularly striking maudlin monologue in the voice of an aging Gene Rayburn. The sketch is hilarious because all the celebrities answers are butt-related, but the whole thing works because it’s so well written. Here’s the sketch:

A DVD of Match Game best-of is coming out on November 21st.