CliqueClackThe Joe Schmo Show is back and as offensively hilarious as ever
It’s season three of meta-reality show ‘The Joe Schmo Show’, and it’s just as ridiculously awesome as you remembered.
When the first season of The Joe Schmo Show aired way back in 2003, it wasn’t the first prank or “hoax” reality show ever aired; but it was the most elaborate one yet. A faux Big Brother sort of show was created as a fake backdrop with mostly actors and one real, unsuspecting victim/contestant. The show was then all about trying to keep the Schmo (Matt Gould), a decent and friendly guy, from figuring out the truth while simultaneously parodying the most ridiculous tropes and archetypes of reality TV. It was original and hilarious, and you legitimately connected with both the actors trying to constantly live fake lives, and the real person of Matt at the center of it all. The second season was more of a Bachelor/Bachelorette ripoff, but things got interesting fast when one of the two contestants realized it was all fake, so she was incorporated into the cast. That was eight years ago.
Finally the Schmo is back, and pushing the envelope yet again. Last year Spike TV held auditions for a bounty hunter competition show called The Full Bounty, attracting real contestants. Of course, as you might suspect, it was all fake. So now we return to the world of mostly actors and one real person (Chase Rogan from Pittsburgh), taking aim yet again at reality shows while trying to pull the most elaborate hoax yet. Things have changed in the last ten years, and reality shows have become increasingly ridiculous. How crazy can they get while keeping Chase in the dark? Will they pull it off? And how offensive is it this time?
Ralph Garman returns as the host (he was also a different character, still the host, the other two seasons), playing a bounty hunter with a trophy wife. His quick wits and charisma keep things on track even when things get a little … out of hand. Although much of the show is scripted, they can’t entirely predict what Chase will do, which is part of the fun and excitement. Considering the subject of the fake show is bounty hunting, it’s not exactly the safest genre either. The actors are all playing various archetypes of varying levels of offensiveness, from “The Over-Achieving Asian” to “The Widow” (yes, she’s playing a woman who lost her husband recently). But the trickiest one is “The Deaf Girl” (and her interpreter), seemingly inspired by people like Marlee Matlin from shows like Celebrity Apprentice. Jo Newman, who plays the deaf girl, is not actually deaf, so it’s both tricky (she may screw up and reveal she can hear) and mildly offensive to actual hearing-impaired people. Oh, and don’t forget Chico, the “Ex-Con”, who literally pretends to have a criminal background.
It’s still TV, so nearly everyone is beautiful of course. Nearly.
The question remains — is Chase really that interesting to watch? At this point, he’s mostly bland, vaguely decent, and fairly competitive. How far can the show push him down a dark path? When will it cross the line from manipulative fun to really hurting someone? After season one, although Matt Gould won a lot of money for his own nonsense, apparently he had a bit of a tough time afterwards. It’s a delicate balancing act where things have already gone wrong. Fire has gotten out of control and damaged props, and the “deaf” girl has already reacted accidentally to a loud noise. The producers and actors are trying hard to keep things interesting and “real.” It’s the sort of reality show that’s a prank to the next level — they aren’t really trying to hurt Chase at all, but comment on the nature of reality shows in general.
I watched every episode of the first two seasons and can’t wait to see what’ll happen next — or if it all comes crashing down.
5 Comments on “The Joe Schmo Show is back and as offensively hilarious as ever”
It scares me that they’re bringing back reality shows that got cancelled that long ago. There are way too many that need to stay dead.
The show wasn’t cancelled, but after two seasons they were worried that too many people would be familiar with the format for it to be successful. They just took a break so they could prank a new generation (kind of like Punk’d did). And they made sure during the casting process that Chase had never seen the first two seasons.
I loved the first two seasons, especially season two when the woman figured it all out midway through and they incorporated her into the cast (luckily, they had two Schmos that season). And let’s not forget, season one gave us our first glimpse of Kristin Wiig on national television! The appeal of watching it, for me, isn’t really the Schmo but seeing how everyone reacts when things go wrong and how quick they are on their feet to get things back on track. But I don’t know why they cast the guy who plays Randy. He was on Notes from the Underbelly> Even I recognize him!
I loved Season 1, thought Matt was the nicest guy ever! Didn’t see season 2 at all. This one looks promising. Loved Lorenzo Lamas and his “pouch” I recognized ‘Randy’ also and loved their answer about that..oh..all red haired people look alike! I hope that Chase can keep a sense of humor about it at the end. Reality shows are so crazy at this point that nothing they have done yet seems that out of line.
Personally, I wonder if the whole thing is fake, because lets face it when it comes right down to it this circus is not being performed for Chase, it’s being performed for us.
Now, I think it could be fake on 2 different levels:
(1) The ‘accidents’ that occur are actually written into the script, because the whole suspense of the show comes from “Is he going to figure it out?”
(2) Chase is just another actor, in on the whole thing from the beginning.
I think (1) is fairly certain. The scene where the deaf girl jumps and puts her hands over her ears at the sound of a champagne cork? Nobody has an exaggerated reaction like that! Also, all of the actors must have failed improve class because they are constantly giving each other glances, snickering or whatever.
Which brings us to point 2. In Tuesday night’s episode we see several of the actors smirking and laughing in the back seat of the van at Chase’s reactions. Yet, Chase should be able to clearly see them in the rear view mirror and would wonder why they are doing that. There are lots of other little suspicious things and it would seem to be a lot safer to just script the entire show when you have that much invested in it. Certainly wouldn’t be the first time a ‘reality’ show was almost completely scripted.
I just read this season’s cast is going to be on STIMULUS PACKAGE this Monday at 7pmPST. It’s the best podcast in the world. I’m stoked.