When I was a younger and more foolish person I bet my friends twenty bucks that I could snort a teaspoon of minced garlic. I won the bet, but my sinuses paid a horrible price and my friends laughed and laughed as I writhed on the ground in agony.
Nobody snorted garlic on the premiere of Wanna Bet? this week, but the basic idea was the same: ordinary people doing extraordinary things just to prove that they can.
Here’s how it works: a contestant comes on the show, which is hosted by British comedians Ant and Dec, and claims to be able to complete a crazy or impossibly difficult stunt, like hula hooping a fifty pound tractor tire for 45 seconds. The four celebrity guests wager up to $25,000 that the contestant will triumph or fail bitterly on national TV. The celebrity with the most money at the end of the show gets to donate that sum to the charity of his or her choice, which is pretty cool.
This week the celebrity bettors were comedian Harland Williams, hilarious person Sherri Shepherd, George “Mr. Sulu” Takei, and the one and only Tom Green. OK, there are probably a million and six Tom Greens in the world, but I’m referring to the famous one.
In addition to the guy who tried to hula hoop the tractor tire (he failed), we met the Pit Girls, a group of young female racing fans who bet that they could complete a NASCAR pit stop faster than a professional pit crew. The cocky pro pit crew were so confident they’d win that they said they could do the challenge with half their crew and do it in half the time it took the Pit Girls. Big mistake. It took the pros 1:18 to complete their pit stop while the amateurs took only 1:10. You go, Pit Girls.
Also on hand were the Moving Men, who bet that they could load a huge jumble of couches into the back of a rental truck in under two minutes and thirty seconds. They nailed it.
The strangest challenge had to be from Germany’s Harald Stempfler, who claimed that he could identify the artist and album title of 4 out of 5 CDs – using his tongue. Ant and Dec blindfolded Harald and then picked 5 CDs at random from a collection of 30. Then, as a nation sat spellbound, Harald ran his long tongue over the surface of the CDs. It was both repellant and fascinating.
“It just seems so blatantly bizarre and ridiculous that it’s the kind of thing that if you couldn’t do it, you would never think of it in the first place,” reasoned Tom Green, who bet that Harald would succeed.
Harald did it! I don’t know what the trick is – maybe he has a superhumanly sensitive tongue – but the guy identified 4 out of 5 CDs.
The winner this week, aside from the viewing public, was my man George Takei, who raked in a big bundle of cash for the Japanese American National Museum. Always bet on Sulu.
Next week: a new panel of celebrity judges and more crazy stunts. Let’s just hope nobody shows up claiming they can snort minced garlic. Believe me, you don’t want to see that.
--Dave Campbell
