One of the things that amuses me most about this show (aside from the whole 'Final Answer' thing) is its name. As I've stated before on numerous occaisons, names can be very important. A name like Shaimus, for instance, is very bad, while someone named Sean Connery cannot help but be huge. In all respects. So when naming a gameshow where you have the potential to win up to One Million Dollars, it's not too surprising that the studio came up with Who wants to be a Millionaire? At first, it almost seems to make sense. Then you realise that it's really a very easy question to answer, much like many of the ones presented on the show. Everyone wants to be a millionaire. This is pretty much a given. A much better title might perhaps have been Who wants to attempt to answer ten inane questions to be a Millionaire? This would much more accurately represent the content of the show. After all, not too many people really became millionaires after appearing on that show, especially with taxes et all. About the only people associated with that show to make millions were the hosts, and all they had to do was ascertain that the contestants were giving their Final Answers. Still, the show was amazingly popular for quite some time. Mainly, I suspect, because people liked sitting at home and feeling superior when they knew the answer to a question that stumped one of the contestants. It's the same sort of thing that must make Jeopardy semi-popular. Because no one could argue that its popularity is due to the charisma of Alex Trebek.
All that aside, contestants on Jeopardy could earn up to ten thousand dollars, if they were lucky and got the Daily Double. Participants on Who wants to be a Millionaire? could win a million. This large payload alone made the latter more popular. In fact, the sum of one million dollars would likely be enough to lure even X the Eliminator into appearing on the gameshow. And he'd make a great contestant. Instead of polling the audience, he would probably take them hostage through the use of some Crushing Walls. Of course, this would only be part of his plan to lure Birdman into the dark television studio so he could finish him off. His other lifelines would likely include Destructo Missiles and escaping in the X-Jet. And since X is an idiot, his answers to the questions posed would likely be hillarious. All in all, even I would have watched this show if they'd brought in old Birdman villains as participants.
This is likely the closest I've come in some time to dishing out a mainstream quote. But this is one of those things that just had to be, even if its source is a bit out of date. Still, most readers should be familiar with this quote. It comes from the once blockbuster gameshow entitled Who wants to be a Millionaire?. The quote itself was used repeatedly by whoever happened to host the show. Numerous people took a turn at this task, but none failed to demand if the contestants had given their 'final answer'. It seemed to be the only requirement for getting to be the host of the gameshow. There really are few jobs with such lax requirements. Of course, the hosts would also have to pretend to care about each and every contestant, and avoid correcting the ones who made really stupid mistakes. From all the commentary above, you might assume that I used to watch this show fairly regularly. Or that I'm crazy. Regardless of the second assumption, the first is most certainly false. But despite never making any effort to watch the show, I was still innundated by the media blitz surrounding it. And the only way for me to deal with that sort of thing is to put up a quote on it. Some three years later. Those in the know can consider it something kind of like a Kornaga strategy.
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