List of events on Distraction (game show)

This article describes rounds, events, individual distractions, and prize rounds featured on the comedy game show "Distraction".

Upfront game

Buzzers

*Cactus Buzzers - Contestants must answer questions by pressing a small hand buzzer surrounded by cacti. Halfway through the game, the players are blindfolded and the turntables holding the cacti and buzzers begin to rotate.
*Pissing Buzzers - Contestants are seated on specially designed toilets, with only a small door on the stall for privacy. To answer a question, a contestant must "do a little wee" to activate his or her buzzer.
*Butt Buzzers - The contestants were lined up side by side, and wore gold go-go shorts with buzzers attached to their rear ends. To answer a question, the contestant had to slap the buzzer located on his neighbor's bottom. Halfway through the round, contestants switch places in order to force them to slap opponents of the same sex, rather than their original ones of the opposite sex.
*Shots - To answer a question, contestants must down a shot of an extremely hot sauce, freezing cold slush (to cause "brain freeze"), their own urine. As the drinking game is usually the head-to-head contest in Great Britain, the final shot is usually the rest of the cup or the "other" contestant's urine.
*Catapult Buzzers - To buzz in, contestants must pull a lever which in turn launches a cream pie into the player's face. After the contestant has used up the pie, it is replaced with other random food items (ketchup, mustard, guacamole, raw eggs, honey, fruit pies, jelly, pudding, or rice.) Incidentally, the contestants are dressed in their regular clothes for this round, and while they may clean off their faces, they must "wear" the food on their clothes and in their hair for the remainder of the show.
*Eggs - To answer, a player must smash an egg on their forehead, most of which are raw; however, some of the eggs are hard-boiled and a few are fertilized. Again, contestants compete in their regular clothes in this round, and compete in their messy attire for the remainder of the show.
*Stunt Bottles - To buzz in, a contestant must break an empty stunt bottle on his or her own head. In the second half of the round, the player must break a bottle on the head of the other contestant of the same sex before answering.
*Hammerheads - Contestants have buzzers attached to their heads, and activate them by jumping on a trampoline and hitting the buzzer on a second trampoline suspended over them.
*Wax On, Wax Off - Contestants are covered in sugar wax and strips of paper stuck; whenever a player buzzes in, the distractor rips a strip of paper off of that contestant.
*Slapstick - Contestants are placed at a table with their faces in a chin rest; meanwhile distractors hidden under the table have their hands protruding from holes directly in front of the contestants. Whenever someone buzzes in, he or she is slapped in the face by the concealed distractor.
*Geometric Geniuses - Contestants have a ruler attached to each side of their heads with rubber bands, and buzz in by pulling on a ruler and snapping the person next to them. The questions usually have something to do with math.
*Fans - Contestants must buzz in to answer questions by stopping the blades of table fans with their faces.
*Bar Fight - Everytime a contestant buzzes in, a stuntman breaks stunt glass over the person's head. As a contestant uses up the glass objects, they are replaced by larger ones, from a beer bottle to a vase; if a contestant buzzes in an unusually high number of times, eventually stunt chairs are broken across that player's back.
*Electrocution - Contestants must put dog collars around their necks. In the first half of the round, they get electrocuted every time they buzz in; in the second half, they get electrocuted randomly.
*Rubber Bands/Clothespins - Contestants simultaneously put as many rubber bands or clothespins around or on their face while answering questions. The contestant with the most rubber bands or clothespins on his or her head gets an additional five points.
*Honey and Feather - Contestants are covered in honey first, then enter a booth, when they buzz in, a fan will turn on sending feathers cycling around the contestant

Timed events

*Wrestlers - Each contestant is thrown around and manhandled by professional wrestlers (some of which have included Samoa Joe, Curry Man, Sylvester Terkay and Frankie Kazarian) for 45 seconds while trying to answer questions. Other variations on this challenge include answering while being manhandled by attack dogs, wrapped in a gym mat and assaulted by kickboxers, and having one's head stuck in a box containing pigeons.
*Ping Pong - Each contestant must stick his or her head through a hole in a modified Ping Pong table, and is asked questions for 45 seconds while two ball launchers simultaneously fire Ping Pong balls at the player's face at a rate of 96 per minute and a speed of 60 miles per hour.
*Roller Derby - The contestant must stay in a tiny square and defend against six roller girls as they attempt to shove the player out of the square and attach flags to him or her. Whoever receives the fewest flags receives a 5 point bonus.
*Continuing Distractions - The three contestants simultaneously compete in a timed round and buzz in with regular buzzers; however, a distraction is continually taking place on or near the contestant. Examples include:
**The contestants being covered in corn while live geese feed off their bodies
**The players having to lie down (sometimes with cheek extractors in their mouths) underneath a cage full of live pigeons while said birds defecate on them
** Having snakes and maggots put down the contestants' shorts
** Having scantily clad women stand behind the contestants scraping their fingernails on chalkboards.
** Having professional acupuncture therapists stick needles into the contestants' faces.

Events featuring nudists

*Nudist Relay - Taking place in the second round, the three remaining players "do not" answer questions, but instead compete in a relay race, featuring the wheelbarrow, the three-legged race, the sack race, and leapfrog (or "under the bridge"). The last place finisher is eliminated.
* Nudist Dressing - A bunch of nudists come out and make three lanes. Each contestant is instructed to pick a lane. They must go through all the nudists' legs in that lane on their back to find a bin with shirts. Then, they must put a shirt on each nudist. Then, they will go through the lane again and get another bin with underwear, then vests. They go as far as they can until time runs out. The contestants who have gotten the furthest with dressing the nudists move on.
*Nudist Turntable - Players must find the answers on cards stuck to the bodies of nudists on rotating platforms, take them off with their teeth, bring back the card, and put it on the board. Successfully doing so scores a point. In the first or second round, the player with the lowest score at the end is eliminated; in the third round, the first contestant to get 4 points wins the game. To make finding the answers more difficult, the players must wear specially-designed glasses to blur their vision.
*Nudist Phone Booth - The remaining two contestants each stand in phone booths. Every time one of them answers a question correctly, an unattractive (usually elderly) nudist joins them in the phone booth. First person to get four (sometimes five) nudists in their booth wins.

Other events

*Blinking Electrocution (also referred to as Eyes Wide Open) - Contestants answer questions while seated in chairs with their arms locked down, and with a TV screen above their heads with their eyes pictured on the screen. They are hooked up to electrodes and get electrocuted every time their eyes blink. In the middle of the round, Jimmy brings back distractors from a previous round. To cause the contestants to blink more, they smoke cigars and blow out the smoke in the contestants' eyes.
*Bubble Bust - Contestants have cheek extractors placed into their mouths to make it hard to talk and to cause mild discomfort. They are strapped to a chair facing a television that is showing well-known celebrities, and must guess the personality appearing on the screen. However, while they are doing this, a bubble machine blows 100 bubbles in their face per second, causing the contestants to blink and making it difficult to see the screen, as well as causing them to inhale the bubbles since they cannot close their mouths.
*Lamb's Testicles - Players must put a lamb's testicle in their mouth for each question they answer correctly and on the 5th question they must "eat" the testicle. Another version of this game involved live maggots.
*Bed of Nails - Always a head-to-head round, contestants answer questions while lying on a bed of nails. Each player is given a cinder block to hold across his or her stomach; every time a player gives a correct answer, a carnival worker smashes the cinder block with a sledgehammer. The first contestant to get four correct answers wins the game.
*Pig Pen - Contestants are placed in a pen with greased pigs labeled from 1 to 5. To answer a question, the player (whose arms are greased as well) must pick up a pig and hold it above his waist. If he answers correctly, he receives points according to the number painted on the pig.
*Bad Dancers - Contestants have to guess songs playing while fat dancers wearing nearly revealing clothing and holding iPods dance horribly while the song is playing.
*Piercing Parade - After each correct answer, a piercer will pierce the contestant in the ear, navel, nipple, eyebrows, nose, or "Safety Place" (wherever the contestant wants it). 4 correct answers wins the game.
*Tattoos - The final two contestants each answer questions while being tattooed by professional artists. The first contestant to answer four questions gets his or her tattoo completed after the show; the loser goes home with a half-finished tattoo.
*Balloons - Two contestants are naked down to socks and five balloons covering their genitals and buttocks. A balloon is popped each time a contestant correctly answers a question; first contestant to have all his/her balloons popped wins.
*Paintballs - A face-to-face round in which a paintball player fires paintballs at a contestant, anywhere the host dictates, when that player incorrectly answers a question or the opponent correctly answers a question.
*Volleyball/hockey - A face-to-face round in which contestants are hit with a volleyball or hockey puck (by professional athletes in their respective sports) when they buzz in.
*Tickling - Contestants are hung upside-down barefoot, and are asked questions while the soles of their feet are tickled by two women or a guest presenter.
*Hole in the Wall - Played in Italy, the game is just like the Japanese Game Show "Human Tetris" where the remaining contestants have to go through a foam wall with a shape on it, whoever passes the least amount of walls are eliminated

Prize rounds

Driven To Distraction

UK, US season 1, Italy

The player won a car (usually a Ford Mustang, Mazda3, Ford Ranger, MINI Cooper, or a Volkswagen Beetle), and faced four or five questions. Each incorrectly answered question corresponded to a specific part of the car being damaged:
**The windshield being caved in with a sledgehammer
**Cans of paint poured on the roof, hood, or down the sides of the car
**Smashed headlights or side view mirrors
** Words scratched on the car door with the keys to that car
**Graffiti being sprayed down the side of the car (In the UK, this has happened to every single car won)
**A paint grenade previously placed inside the car being detonated
**Paintballs being fired at the car by all losing contestants
**The hood of the car being attacked with a belt sander
**The roof of the car being sawn off by a metal jigsaw, turning the car into an (albeit unsafe) "convertible"
**The seats in the car being slashed

In the UK, the vandalism was usually done by either the losing contestants, one of the winner's loved ones, children (for paint), or "professional vandals"; however, occasionally the remaining contestant was forced to attack the car him/herself. In the US, the damage was always carried out by the losing contestants, with one exception: in one episode, at the end of the questions, every incorrect answer allowed a big burly man with a sledgehammer five seconds to damage the car as much as he could. (Incidentally, that was the only time in the first season that a player won an undamaged car.)

After all the questions were asked, the player received the car in whatever condition it was in, damaged or not.

Burning Money

One version of this game involved the contestant winning a pile of money (usually £5000); answering a question incorrectly resulted in part of this money being thrown onto a wildly-flaming barbecue until the end of the round, when the contestant was allowed to attempt to salvage any money that had not been consumed by the flames.

A variation of this game involved toasters. Each £1000 was lit from the start, and every question correctly answered allowed the contestant to free money from a toaster. Incorrect answers left the money in the toaster until the game ended. This variation of the game was never used in the United States edition, as burning money is technically illegal in the United States.

Hot Prizes

The winning contestant is shown three or four prizes (usually totaling £5,000 or more in value) sitting next to a lit fireplace. Each question is for a specific prize; if the contestant answers the question wrong, said prize is shoved into the furnace and burned. If a prize proves difficult to burn, gasoline is poured onto it to speed up the process; this has caused minor burns to a distractor on at least one occasion. Variations on this round have included throwing the prizes into a running concrete mixer, and having "carpenters" destroy said prizes by "making other items out of them" (such as a "bookshelf" out of a stereo, a "picture frame" out of a flat-screen TV, etc.)

Prize Plunge

The player was shown five prizes (usually totaling $10,000 or more in value) in a bulletproof glass box, each of which was hooked up to explosives. The contestant faced four or five questions. For each question answered incorrectly, the player had to push one of five detonators, each of which would randomly trigger one of the explosives. At the end, the player won whatever had not been blown up. The prizes usually included a Vespa scooter, a computer of some sort, a plasma TV, and a smaller electronic device. One of the five prizes was usually a stereotypical game show parting gift, such as a supply of Rice-A-Roni or a can of peas. This booby prize allowed for a 1-in-5 chance of getting one question wrong and still walking away with all "valuable" prizes intact.

Car Smash

"(Also referred to as "60 Seconds of Destruction")"

The contestant was awarded a car, and as in the first season, he or she had to answer questions to protect it from vandalism. However, instead of each question being worth a part of the car, the round was now timed. The host asked the player three questions, which usually had multiple answers. After the first question was asked, a 60-second clock started. For the first 20 seconds, no damage was done to the car. However, once the pointer passed 20 and went into the "red zone", a bell sounded, and the first loser sprayed graffiti down the driver's side of the car (generally, a message making fun of one of the winning contestant's "quirks"). A second bell sounded, and the next loser ruined the paint job on the hood with a sander. Finally, a third bell sounded, and the remaining loser smashed the windshield with a sledgehammer. The player could pass; however, the losing players only stopped attacking the car when the winning contestant had completely answered all three questions or when the 60 seconds expired. One undamaged car was given away this season after a contestant answered all three questions in 22 seconds (the player with the spray paint did not make it to the car in time to start using it and was subsequently told not to do anything.)

Barrel Drop/Conveyor Belt

The player was shown a desktop computer (either an iMac G5 or a Sony VAIO), a large Sony Wega HDTV, and a Vespa Scooter. Carr asked the player three (usually multiple-answer) questions, each corresponding to a given prize. The player had as many guesses as he could give in 10 seconds to completely answer the question. If he or she ran out of time, the prize was destroyed. The player won the prizes in whatever condition they were in after all three questions were asked.

Barrel Drop version: A steel barrel filled with 1,000 pounds of concrete was suspended over the prize, and was slowly raised while time elapsed. If time ran out, the barrel was dropped onto the prize.

Conveyor Belt version: The prize was slowly carried by a conveyor belt toward a large red "X". When the prize approached a red light just short of the "X", a warning buzzer sounded, and if it reached the crosshairs of the "X", a wrecking ball immediately swung down and crashed into the prize.

Rope Burn

Each of three or four prizes was placed under an anvil suspended by a rope attached to a device reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg contraption. The contestant had 20 seconds to answer as many questions as there were prizes. If the contestant did not answer all the questions in the allotted time, a blowtorch aimed at the first rope was ignited. The rope in turn burned, allowing the anvil to fall onto the prize and destroy it. The remaining torches were lit in 10 or 15 second intervals, depending on the number of prizes. As soon as all questions were answered correctly, any lit torches were extinguished, and the contestant won the prizes in whatever condition they were in at that point. (This is the only prize round where a contestant could still lose all of his or her prizes even if some of the questions were answered correctly.)

Notes

*Two contestants in the US version have won cars in perfect condition (one in each season). One contestant has won a prize round with no prizes being damaged (playing 3-prize Rope Burn). Three contestants have had all their prizes destroyed (one playing Prize Plunge, another playing Barrel Drop, and a third playing 4-prize Rope Burn.)
*The timed car round was played five times in the second season. The three rounds in which a Ford Mustang was featured all resulted in the car receiving the maximum damage possible, as the minute ran out before the contestant could answer all three questions. The two final rounds that featured a Volkswagen Beetle each had more successful contestants - one who only received two letters spraypainted onto the side of her car before getting the third question right, and the contestant mentioned above who won his car untouched [http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=49969] .

ee also

Distraction (game show)