Thursday, August 31, 2006

You Know, That's a Good Idea!

I've never been a fan of reality shows. At least not of the "Survivor," "American Idol," or "Temptation Island" kind. I'm more of the reality-based show fan, like "Mythbusters" and such where science is the method for success.

Anyway, over at the JREF forums, AmateurScientist came up with a good idea, and Garrette expanded on it: Survivor for woos.

In case you're wondering what the thread is really about, apparently a legendary troll by the name of Paul Bethke has resurfaced: As the story goes, back in the olden days of 8-tracks, Vaudeville, and monochrome Gameboys, he claimed that he would magically/miraculously blind a number of skeptics during a broadcast of Randi's. I think you can guess the result.

Anyway, back to Survivor, Woo Edition: We put a bunch of woos out in some wilderness location. The starting line-up:

A water dowser, especially if this takes place in a dry area.
A chiropractor who's opposed to vaccination, for treating all that ails the group.
An astrologer/clairvoyant/tarot card player, for predicting upcoming hazards.
A cold fusion or free energy scientist for making tools.
A pop psychologist for resolving conflicts.
An organic farmer for finding/raising food.
A medium for channelling all the contestants who die during the show.

Every two weeks or so, they vote off the most useless member of the group, and we get to see the voted-off member whine. Said member is replaced with a counterpart with similar alleged abilities. The chiropractor is replaced with, say, a reiki specialist. The dowser gets replaced with a clairvoyant. The medium gets replaced with an EVP specialist. You get the idea.

5 comments:

EoR said...

Never mind voting someone off. How about every week we vote another woo onto the island?

Anonymous said...

Brilliant, Bronze Dog. I have a weakness for blood sports.

Rev. BigDumbChimp said...

What sort of challenges will there be? Dunking for evidence. Factual obstical course (with the leap of faith rope swing of course). Having to eat your words quicker than anyone else on the island. Logical Fallacy bingo.

I think you're on to something here.

Bronze Dog said...

That's a good question, Reverend. Never watched the original, so I wouldn't know what sorts of things went on with their challenges.

Lifewish said...

BDC: I imagine it would be challenges whereby their chosen area of expertise would actually have some direct impact on their survival ability. Of course, you'd have to find ones who were actually confident of their abilities, but that's not actually as hard as I used to think.