Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha... Wipeout!

Over my winter break, I was a bit laid up with my foot issue, putting me in front of the TV more than the whole rest of the year combined. In that time, I discovered some new shows and rediscovered some old favorites. Always reliable is Diners, Drive-ins And Dives, and same with Man Vs. Food. I started getting into American Pickers and Pawn Stars. I forgot how much I like Dog the Bounty Hunter.

But one afternoon I came across a rerun of ABC's Wipeout. I watched as human beings got flung like rag dolls, collapsed like folding chairs, and bent like pipe cleaners as they took on obstacle courses of swinging beams, swiveling table tops, and gooey flying objects. All the while, the contestants were wearing perma-smiles or priceless looks of terror.


As the name suggests, the wipeouts are the reason for watching -- and they are abundant. Front and back flips, twists, and cart wheels. It's like watching Olympic gymnastics with more violence and zero grace. Each wipeout is like a snowflake -- no two are quite the same. Their motto is "One will become a champion. All will wipeout." And it's true. Some of their obstacles are so hard that they appear to have a 100% failure rate; but I prefer to look at them as a 100% wipeout rate.

I really want to be on this show. But since that's not likely to every happen, I've set the DVR to capture any of them that are on.

Here's a taste: