Episode 120

Family Feud is a pretty hysterical show. And no, I don't get discouraged by the inevitable commercials telling me I should make the phone call to Everest College so I can do something with my life. Yes, I know I'm watching television at 1:00pm, but that doesn't mean I don't have a Masters degree.

So, back to Family Feud. First of all, what is John O'Hurley doing hosting this show? He is funny and charming and seemingly intelligent, yet he's hosting the most absurd and brainless game show on television (I don't even need to say "except Deal or No Deal", it's just implied).

Anyway, my favorite part -- and I assume everyone's favorite part -- of Family Feud is after the round is over, when the audience has to shout out in unison all of the answers that remain on the board. So if the question was "Name a phrase with the word 'face' in it," the remaining answers will be shown, and the whole audience will shout "FACE OFF!" in a really drawn out, what-the-hell-are-we-doing-in-the-audience-of-this-stupid-show kind of voice.

But this becomes even more comical in two situations: First, when there's a slash in the answer. So like, if the question was "Name a room in your house where you might watch television" and the answer that flips over says "Living room/ Den", the audience does a really awkward, semi-unison "Liiiiiiving Rooooooom [how long should we pause to indicate this slash?!] Dennnnnnnnn."

The other, and even more hysterical situation is when the answer is abbreviated, and the audience has no clue what it stands for. Today, the question was "Name a man known for his dancing". Shockingly, no one guessed Baryshnikov (don't worry, I just googled it to get the spelling right). But when it came up for the audience to read, it said "M. Baryshnikov." Not only did half the audience not have a clue who that was, but those who did had no idea what the M. stood for, so it resulted in an awkward jumble that sounded something like "mmmklemm brashknvvvooooo".

Of course, John O'Hurley saved the day with his perfect Russian pronunciation and knowledge of the answer. I would have liked to see Alex Trebek do that without a cue card.