Here's Reality Game Show for You

It's kind of like a reality game show. Here, I'm urging you to study, study, study – and what do I do now? I promote the benefits of goofing off.

You probably think I'm going to extol the benefits of relaxation. Maybe I'm about to warn you -- perhaps a bit sternly -- that game show preparation should never, ever consume your life.

Hah! I'm not that easy-going. The reason I suggest goofing off is this: Game shows, especially Millionaire, have their share of pop culture questions. Think of them as reality game shows.

Why Pop Culture Is Important: During my Millionaire experience, two very different experiences convinced me that goofing off (aka, soaking up pop culture) is surprisingly important when preparing for a stint in the hot seat. It's almost a reality game show in and of itself.

Experience #1: The smartest guy in the room meets his match.

And here's the best part. This guy was such an amazing person -- warm, wonderful, gracious, and incredibly modest for someone so intelligent. If I were as smart as this guy, I'd be a pompous ass. But this guy was entirely unpretentious. I was in awe. Everyone was.

We called him Pinky, because he was wearing a pink shirt that looked terrific on him. He had nice eyes too. You can get away with wearing a pink shirt if you're nice, confident, and have amazing, sparkling eyes.

Well, Pinky was among the first in our group to get called into the hot seat. In the green room, we held our breath, watching via the remote TV-feed as our fellow contestant got to work. We knew what was coming.

Pinky was going to win big, at least a few hundred thousand, and quite possibly the million. We cheered as he sailed easily through the first several questions, using just one life-line. Pinky seemed unstoppable until he met his match – a question about reality TV.

The question was something like this: "What reality TV program has pit stops?"

The answer was The Amazing Race. I'd watched this reality game show a couple of times. So had the rest of us in the green room. We knew the answer.

But Pinky didn't.

The rest of us watched in shock as the smartest guy in the room burned through his last two lifelines and walked away with a few thousand dollars. Don't get me wrong. That's a lot of money. Definitely an amount to be proud of. It was just that we had Pinky pegged to win a million.

It was sobering. Here, I wasn't nearly as smart as Pinky, and I was heading into the hot seat soon. I knew a little bit about reality game shows, but not nearly enough about everything else. Yikes!

And boy, Pinky was so gracious too, even as he told Meredith he was going to walk away with what he'd earned so far. What a guy. He didn't need a million bucks to be one of the classiest people I've ever met.

So my point is this: Maybe you can't be too classy if you want to score big. Grab some pork rinds, pour cold one, and stick your hand in your pants. Grab that remote, and enjoy some reality TV. It just might pay off.

Experience #2: Foiled by a chest-hair waxing

Some friends invited me to see the latest blockbuster movie – "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." It was tempting. I really, really wanted to go. "But I shouldn't," I told myself. "I have studying to do." I repeat, no time for fun. Finally, I told my friends, "No thanks. I'd better keep studying for Millionaire."

Turns out, that wasn't the smartest thing.

Wouldn't you know it, one of my real-life Millionaire questions was about this very same movie? The question was something like this. "In the movie 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin', what woman's name is called out as a man gets his chest hair waxed?" Do you know the answer?

Well, I sure didn't.

It's Kelly Clarkston, by the way. But here, I'd skipped the darn movie to study. Oh, the bitter irony! Thankfully, the wonderful studio audience came to my rescue. I was probably the only person in the room who didn't know the answer.

I should have goofed off – at least once. Now, that's a reality game show for you.




Now that you know the roles that reality game shows play in goofing off, please click here to return to my main "Game Show Study" page.