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Showing posts with label smackdown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smackdown. Show all posts

Friday, 24 June 2011

Cultural Smackdown: The Apprentice Edition

This version of the Smackdown will focus on the main difference between the two versions: the host of the respective versions of The Apprentice.


So let's break this down:

US Version


- Hosted by: Donald Trump
- Known as: "The Donald", though generally shown respect by candidates who refer to him as "Mr. Trump"
- Age: 65
- Signature hand gesture when firing:  the cobra (pictured above)
- How he became wealthy: Family money.. He joined his father's already successful real estate company, he took it to heights of success and some shaky depths.
- How he became famous:  He raised his profile due to his outrageous style, outspoken nature, and penchant for trading in wives.
- Politics:  Aye, aye, aye...  He initially toyed with running for President as a 3rd party candidate in 2000.  He's been making noises (and vaguely racist proclamations about our current president) about running as a Republican in the next election.
- Children: 5 by 3 different wives; Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany & Barron
- Wives: Ivana (1977-1992); Marla Maples (1993-1999); Melania Knauss (2004-present)
- Likes:  gold, golf, calling things "classy", the sound of his own voice, styling his hair in a thoroughly ridiculous manner and refusing to listen to anyone who might suggest that is might look better in another style.
-Estimated to be worth:  $2.7 billion (according to Forbes)

UK Version

- Hosted by: Alan Sugar
- Known as: "Lord Sugar", though his official title is Baron Sugar, of Clapton in the London Borough of Hackney.  Before he was made a Lord he was known as "Sir Alan" as he was knighted in 2000.  
- Age: 64
- Signature hand gesture when firing:  the point (pictured above)
- How he became wealthy: All on his own, baby.  He grew up poor in the East End of London, the son of a tailor.  He began his entrepreneurial empire by selling electronics out of a van as a market seller.  From there he built an electronics company that he sold in 2007 for £125 million.  
- How he became famous:  He came into the public eye when he bought Tottenham Hotspur.  This raised his profile.  Possibly the fact that his business deals with electronics and media, combined with his self-made status, made him a "celebrity" of sorts.
- Politics:  He's a supporter of the Labour party.  There were reports that he'd been approached to stand as the Labour candidate for Mayor of London, which he has dismissed.  He was given the title of Baron so that he could serve with Gordon Brown's government as "Enterprise Champion", a non-political role.
- Children: 3; Simon, Daniel, Louise
- Wives: Ann (1968-present)
- Likes:  Rolls Royces, footballsoccer, travel, getting in Twitter spats, being shot from angle that doesn't make him look quite so short, talking about his roots
- Estimated to be worth: $1.14 billion

So who wins?
In my opinion, Trump has become too much like a caricature.  He's made the show increasingly entertainment-oriented as it progressed from season to season.  Sugar, on the other hand, has exerted more and more control over the show to demand better candidates and more real business-oriented tasks.  It could just be because Sugar is new to me, and hasn't had time to grow as tiresome as I find The Donald, but for my money- Sugar takes it.

Mr. Trump-  You're fired! (Note:  I was going to take a cute picture of myself doing a signature firing hand motion, but I don't feel very photogenic today... so just picture it for yourself, ok?  Ok.)

What do you think?

Friday, 25 March 2011

Cultural Smackdown: TV Clip Show Edition

Today is the first of a new series:  CULTURAL SMACKDOWN!

In this series, I'm going to compare and contrast two versions of a similar idea, as executed by each culture.

Today's inaugural edition features the TV Clip Show.  In America, it's called "The Soup".  In England, we call it "Harry Hill's TV Burp".  I hope you'll enjoy this head-to-head comparison of the two.

LET THE SMACKDOWN BEGIN!!!

TV Burp Image & Talk Soup Image (edited slightly by me)

Each takes on a stupid reality show:


vs.


On Soap Operas:


vs.


On Game Shows:


The Soup on Teen Jeopardy

On vapid nationally-known TV hosts:


vs.



In my opinion, they are pretty comparable.  Here's a little bullet point action for you:
-Harry Hill is a bit more cartoon-ish and camp than Joel McHale... and balder...  
-Joel McHale has better hair.
-TV Burp films in front of a studio audience as opposed to staff, family and friends.
-TV Burp airs on Sunday Sunday* Saturday** early evening after the equivalent of America's Funniest Home Videos, meaning it draws a large family audience.  The Soup targets a slightly older audience. 
-TV Burp has long-running jokes (especially about soap operas) leading to the soap writers including things in the script specifically in hopes of Hill picking it up.  The Soup has a long-running joke about E and specifically Ryan Seacrest.
-Both feature recurring characters and bits.


Harry mixes it up a bit with various "Somethings" of the week


So what do you think?  What differences can you see?  


Finally, I leave you TV Burp's most signature bit.  I like The Soup and I like TV Burp.  But which one's best?  There's only one way to find out....



Let the SMACKDOWN begin! To the comments....

*Ross says he told me Saturday when I double checked what day TV Burp airs.... I heard Sunday.
**Ross wants to know why I crossed out Sunday and wrote Sunday...