MOST EXTREME HILARITY

A scrappily-clad Japanese man prepares to advance bases. He waits at a base for the batter with the large plastic head to hit the ball. The batter misses, but the runner on second doesn't care. He immediately takes off down the muddy baseline for the next base. With a kamakazi squeal he wipes out, flips over and lands, drilling his head deep into the mud. He lays there, head stuck in the mud, arms and legs flailing, as the baseman moseys over to tag him out. He has now been eliminated.\nThis is just one of the unusual incidents which occurred on "Takeshi's Castle," the popular Japanese reality show which ran from 1986 to 1991. On the show, 100 unusually-clad and overzealous contestants plowed their ways through bizarre tasks as part of General Tani's army. The contestant who succeeded in their tasks went on to raid Count Takeshi's Castle. The ones who were eliminated went home, soaked in mud, but not without their pride.\nThirteen years later, "Takeshi's Castle" is back, and even more hilarious. Now footage from the old show can be seen on Spike TV's "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge," the show which takes the absurd events from "Takeshi's Castle" and adds often obscene and bizarre English voice-overs in place of the original Japanese dialogue. \nThe hosts, Vic Romano and Kenny Blankenship, voiced by Victor Wilson and Christopher Darga, group the contestants into teams such as "The Porn Stars" or "The Nerds" (each episode has two teams with made-up names competing against each other). Contestants are dubbed with fake names (for example, "Hillary Spank") and given unusual occupations such as "Honeymoon Suite webcam operator." The interviewer, Guy Le Douche, voiced by John Cervenka, asks the contestants odd questions and tells the female contestants that he will "hose them off" after they emerge from the mud (female contestants are all voiced by comedian Mary Sheer).\nIn one episode entitled "Cable TV Workers vs. White House Employees," Blankenship and Romano describe a contestant.\n"Here's C. Everett Poop," Romano says. "He's the snack masticator general. He pre-chews pretzels for the president."\n"It must be cool to have someone chew your food for you," Blankenship chimes in.\nAfter receiving their stunning introductions, the contestants are ready to rumble. With shameless excitement, the contestants hurl themselves into the events. \nIn one event called "The Rotating Surfboard of Death," the contestants jump off a platform onto a hovering surfboard which takes them on a rickety ride in a circle back to the original platform after attempting to jump over a large pink whale. In another event, called "Mushroom Trip," the contestants grab hold of a gigantic swinging mushroom as it soars across a muddy pond. Upon the conclusion of each event, Romano, Blankenship and Le Douche comment on the success or failure of the contestants, such as the fate of a participant who got hit in the butt five times during the game "Brass Balls."\n"She can take it in the butt all day, but one shot to the head and she's down," Blankenship says.\nWilson says his favorite event is called "Sinkers and Floaters." In this event the contestants try to run across a muddy pond jumping from stone to stone not knowing which one will sink and which will float. All the while, Romano and Blankenship make comments about the different techniques the players use to get through the tasks. In fact, not one ounce of "MXC" is still spoken in its original Japanese. The writers don't know what was originally said so it's not a direct translation, and Spike TV doesn't own the rights to the Japanese voices anyway.\n"We are not translating, we create an entirely new story line," "MXC" Executive Producer Paul Abeyta says. "The success (of the show) belongs with John and Chris who put together the dialogue, jokes and voice the show. They do the character driving."\nCervenka says the writers prepare the jokes before recording each show, but leave room for ad-libbing. \n"We need to know the jokes," he says. "It's written and outlined. It's kind of loose. We try to leave latitudes for improv. People found the comedy. It's a weird phenomenon."\n"MXC" fan and senior Laura Greenspan says that while watching the overzealous players hurt themselves is pretty entertaining, she enjoys listening to the commentary more than watching the show.\n"I get really pissed off when people talk and laugh really loud (during the show) because I find (the hosts') talking really funny," she says. "It's just smart."\n"MXC" began when the comedians were looking for a foreign show to mess with. Abeyta says they were fortunate enough to obtain 130 one-hour episodes of "Takeshi's Castle," which they cut down and spliced into half-hour episodes. Abeyta, Darga and Cervenka created an eight-minute presentation about their idea which they presented to five networks, all of which wanted the show.\n"We thought Spike would be the most supportive," Abeyta says.\nHe added that "MXC" increased Spike's Saturday night ratings 400 percent during its first season. \n"We had no idea Spike Network (would be so popular)," Scheer says. "We weren't even sure people were watching us."\nHowever, Greenspan and her roommates have become such big fans of the show that they videotaped a recent "MXC" marathon. Greenspan says she has about eight hours recorded on two tapes.\n"I think ("MXC") is something that everybody can watch, and we watch it together and find it hysterical and easy to agree upon," she says.\nIn fact, "MXC" has become such a huge success that its fans are now zealously watching the show's third season which began last Thursday.\nLast week's episode, called "MXC Almost Live," was the first ever episode which did not use "Takeshi's Castle" as the context. Instead, "Almost Live," filmed at Universal Studios Florida, starred college students from the University of Central Florida and other Orlando-area colleges. In this episode, "The Nerds" competed against "The Fraternities."\nTonight's episode, called "Squeeze out the Vote 2004," features Democrats vs. Republicans vs. Third Party candidates and pays homage to the 2004 Presidential race. The episode, which airs on Spike TV at 10 p.m., will star many faux politicians including "Dan Whale," a Republican who wants to privatize American bathrooms and "Domin Atrix," the leader of the S&M Party (whose members always dream of majority whips), as well as "Tipper Bore," a political activist who wants to remove the "Ho" from Hostess cakes.\nParticipants on tonight's show will compete in politically-themed games including "Rock the Moat," "Pork The Barrel" and "Mudsliders."\nSome compare the new "MXC" to the retired Sci Fi Channel's "Mystery Science Theater 3000," in which a human, Mike Nelson, and two robots, Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo, watched hours and hours of horrible science fiction movies and commented on the characters and plot lines.\n"MXC" has also been compared to MTV's "Jackass" in which players perform comically, ridiculous stunts that leave them scarred, bruised or welted. \nOddly enough, the contestants of "MXC" never seem to be injured, even when they bounce from log to log during "Log Drop." And, of course, at the end of every episode, Romano and Blankenship replay the top 10 most painful eliminations in "Kenny Blankenship's Painful Eliminations of the Day."\nGreenspan says she's really excited about the new season and plans on watching it every week. She laughs at watching the middle-aged, out-of-shape, oddly-dressed contestants enthusiastically attempt each task.\n"I'm just impressed by their unabashed enthusiasm," she says. "They get in costumes and they go balls out and full speed. They get up there, and they're so excited. That's part of the humor. It's like 'What are you doing? You're about to land in some shit water!"