List of events on Distraction (game show)

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This article describes rounds, events, individual distractions, and prize rounds featured on the comedy game show Distraction.

1 Upfront Game
2 Prize Rounds
3 Notes
4 See also

[edit] Upfront Game

[edit] Buzzers

Cactus Buzzers (UK and US only) - Contestants must answer questions by pressing a small hand buzzer surrounded by cacti. Halfway through the game, the players are blindfolded and the turntables holding the cacti and buzzers begin to rotate.

Pissing Buzzers - Contestants are seated on specially designed toilets, with only a small door on the stall for privacy. To answer a question, they must "do a little wee" to activate their buzzer. This round can be played either as an upfront game or a head-to-head round.

Butt Buzzers - The contestants were lined up side by side, and wore gold go-go shorts with buzzers attached to their rear ends. To answer a question, the contestant had to slap the buzzer located on his neighbor's bottom. The neighbors switch from the first round (The neighbor is of the opposite sex) to the second (The neighbor is now same sex).

Shots - To answer a question, contestants must down a shot of an extremely hot sauce, freezing cold slush (to cause "brain freeze"), or in the UK, their own urine left over from drug testing. As the drinking game is usually the head-to-head contest in Great Britain, the final shot is usually the rest of the cup or the other contestant's urine.

Catapult Buzzers - To buzz in, contestants must pull a lever which in turn launches a cream pie into the player's face. After the contestant has used up the pie, it is replaced with other random food items (ketchup, mustard, guacamole, raw eggs, honey, fruit pies, jelly, pudding or rice.) Incidentally, the contestants are dressed in their regular clothes for this round, and while they may clean off their faces, they must "wear" the food on their clothes and in their hair for the remainder of the show.

Eggs - To answer, a player must smash an egg on their forehead, most of which are raw; however, some of the eggs are hard-boiled, a few are fertilized, and others are rotten. Again, contestants compete in their regular clothes in this round, and compete in their messy attire for the remainder of the show.

Stunt Bottles - To buzz in, a contestant must break an empty stunt bottle on his or her head. In the second half of the round, the player must break a bottle on the other contestant (Of the same sex)'s head before answering.

Paintball - After every question, whoever gets it wrong gets shot by a paintball anywhere (while wearing a white jumpsuit to show where they got hit).

Hammerheads - Contestants have buzzers attached to their heads, and activate them by jumping on a trampoline and hitting the buzzer on a second trampoline suspended over them.

Wax On, Wax Off (Italy only) - Contestants have tons of sugar wax and strips of paper stuck on them; whenever they buzz in, the distractor rips off one of the strips of paper.

Slapstick (Italy only) - Similar to the Catapult game; however, instead of food, "helping hands" slap the contestant when they buzz in.

Geometric Geniuses (Italy only) - Contestants have a ruler on both sides of their ear, and the only way to buzz in is to pull on a rubber band and snap the person next to them. The questions usually have something to do with math.

Fans - Contestants must buzz in to answer questions by stopping the blades of fans with their face.

Bar Fight - Everytime a contestant buzzes in, a stuntman breaks stunt glass over the person's head. The glass objects get bigger as the round goes on, from a beer bottle to a vase.

Electrocution - Contestants must put dog collars around their necks. In the first half, they get electrocuted everytime they buzz in; in the second round, they get electrocuted randomly.

Rubber Bands/Clothespins - Contestants simultaneously put as many rubber bands or clothespins around or on their face while answering questions. The contestant with the most rubber bands or clothespins on his or her head gets an additional five points.

[edit] Timed Events

Wrestlers - Each contestant is thrown around and manhandled by professional wrestlers (Some of which have included Samoa Joe, Curry Man, Sylvester Terkay and Kazarian) for 45 seconds while trying to answer questions. Other variations on this challenge include answering while being manhandled by attack dogs, wrapped in a gym mat and assaulted by kickboxers, and having one's head stuck in a box containing pigeons.

Ping Pong - Each contestant must stick his or her head through a hole in a modified Ping Pong table, and is asked questions for 45 seconds while two ball launchers simultaneously fire Ping Pong balls at the player's face at a rate of 96 per minute and a speed of 60 miles per hour.

Roller Derby - The Contestant Must stay in a tiny square and defend 5 roller girls as they shove them out of the circle and attaching flags, whoever receives the fewest flags receives a 5 point bonus.

Continuing Distractions - The three contestants simultaneously compete in a timed round and buzz in with regular buzzers; however, a distraction is continually taking place on or near the contestant. Examples include:

The contestants being covered in corn while live geese feed off their bodies
The players having to lie down (sometimes with cheek extractors in their mouths) underneath a cage full of live pigeons while said birds defecate on them
Having snakes and maggots put down the contestants' shorts
Having scantily clad women stand behind the contestants scraping their fingernails on chalkboards.
Having professional acupuncture therapists stick needles into the contestants' faces.
Nudist Dressing A bunch of nudists come out and make three lanes. Each contestant is instructed to pick a lane. They must go through all the nudist's legs in that lane on their back to find a bin with shirts. Then, they must put a shirt on each nudist. Then, they will go through the lane again and get another bin with underwear, then vests. They go as far as they can until time runs out. The contestants who have gotten the furthest with dressing the nusists move on.

[edit] Other Events

"Blinking Electro" - Contestants are seated in chairs with their arms locked down, and with a TV screen above their heads. They are hooked up to electrodes and get electrocuted every time they blink. In the middle of the round, Jimmy brings back distractors from a previous round. To cause the contestants to blink more, they smoke cigars and blow out the smoke in the contestants' eyes.

Bubble Bust (UK and Italy Only) - Contestants have cheek extractors placed into their mouths to make it hard to talk and to cause mild discomfort. They are strapped to a chair facing a television that is showing well known celebrities, and must guess the personality appearing on the screen. However, while they are doing this, a bubble machine blows 100 bubbles in their face per second, causing the contestants to blink and making it difficult to see the screen, as well as causing them to inhale the bubbles since they cannot close their mouths.

Nudist Phonebooth - The remaining two contestants each stand in phonebooths. Everytime one of them answers a question correctly, an unattractive nudist will join them in the phonebooth. First person to get four nudists in their phonebooth wins.

Nudist Relay - Taking place in the second round, the three remaining players don't answer questions, but instead compete in a relay race, featuring the wheelbarrow, the 3 legged race, and leapfrog (or "under the bridge"). The last place finisher is eliminated.

Nudist Turntable - Players must find the answers on cards stuck to the bodies of nudists on rotating platforms, take them off with their teeth, bring back the card, and put it on the board. Successfully doing so scores a point. In the first or second round, the player with the lowest score at the end is eliminated; in the third round, the first contestant to get 4 points wins the game. To make finding the answers more difficult, the players must wear specially-designed glasses to blur their vision.

Lamb's Testicles (UK Only) - Players must put a lamb's testicle in their mouth for each question they answer correctly and on the 5th question they must eat the testicle.

Bed of Nails - Always a head-to-head round, contestants answer questions while lying on a bed of nails. Each player is given a cinder block to hold across his or her stomach; every time a player gives a correct answer, a carnival worker smashes the cinder block with a sledgehammer. The first contestant to get four correct answers wins the game.

Pig Pen - Contestants are placed in a pen with greased pigs labeled from 1 to 5. To answer a question, the player (whose arms are greased as well) must pick up a pig and hold it above his waist. If he answers correctly, he receives points according to the number painted on the pig.

Bad Dancers (Italian Only) - Contestants have to guess songs playing while fat dancers wearing nearly revealing clothing and holding iPods dance horribly while the song is playing

Piercing Parade - (UK Only) After each correct answer, a piercer will pierce the contestant in the ear, naval, nipple, eyebrows, nose, or "Safety Place" (wherever the contestant wants it). 4 correct answers wins the game.

Tattoos - The final two contestants each get tattooed by professional artists. The first contestant to answer four questions gets his or her tattoo completed after the show; the loser goes home with a half-finished tattoo.

[edit] Prize Rounds

[edit] Driven To Distraction

UK, US season 1, Italy

The player won a car (usually a Ford Mustang, Mazda3, Ford Ranger, MINI Cooper, or a Volkswagen Beetle), and faced 4 or 5 questions. Each incorrectly answered question corresponded to a specific part of the car being damaged:

The windshield being caved in with a sledgehammer
Cans of paint poured on the roof, hood, or down the sides of the car
Smashed headlights or (UK only) side view mirrors
Words scratched on the car door, likely with the keys to that car
Graffiti being sprayed down the side of the car
(UK only) A paint grenade previously placed inside the car being detonated
(Italy Only) Paintballs being fired at the car by all 5 losing contestants
The hood of the car being attacked with a belt sander
The roof of the car being sawn off by a metal jigsaw (Featured only once in the US, making Carr proclaim: "Look at the bright side, even if you get this question wrong, you get a convertible!")

In the UK, the vandalism was usually done by either the losing contestants, one of the winner's loved ones, children (for paint), or "professional vandals"; however, occasionally the remaining contestant was forced to attack the car him/herself. In the US, the damage was always carried out by the losing contestants, with one exception: in one episode, at the end of the questions, every incorrect answer allowed a big burly man with a sledgehammer 5 seconds to damage the car as much as he could. (Incidentally, that was the only time in the first season that a player won an undamaged car.)

After all the questions were asked, the player received the car in whatever condition it was in, damaged or not.

[edit] Burning Money

UK only

One version of this game involved the contestant winning a pile of money (usually £5000); answering a question incorrectly resulted in part of this money being shoveled into a lit fireplace or barbecue pit. Another version of this game involved a 1000 pound wedge lodged into each of five toasters. For each of five questions they got right, they could pull the money out of one toaster with tongs or gloves. The money would start burning about halfway through the round. This round is not used on the US version, as it is illegal to burn American cash. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Hot Prizes

UK only

The winning contestant is shown 3 or 4 prizes (usually totaling £5,000 or more in value) sitting next to a lit fireplace. Each question is for a specific prize; if the contestant gets the question wrong, said prize is shoved into the furnace and burned. If a prize proves difficult to burn, gasoline is poured onto it to speed up the process; this has caused minor burns to a distractor on at least one occasion. Variations on this round have included throwing the prizes into a running concrete mixer, and having "carpenters" destroy said prizes by "making other items out of them" (such as a "bookshelf" out of a stereo, a "picture frame" out of a flat-screen TV, etc.)

[edit] Prize Plunge

US Season 1, Italy

The player was shown five prizes (usually totaling $10,000 or more in value) in a bulletproof glass box, each of which was hooked up to explosives. The contestant faced four or five questions. For each question answered incorrectly, the player had to push one of five detonators, each of which would randomly trigger one of the explosives. At the end, whatever wasn't blown up, the player won. The prizes usually included a Vespa scooter, a computer of some sort, a plasma TV, and a smaller electronic device. One of the five prizes was usually a stereotypical game show parting gift, such as a supply of Rice-A-Roni or a can of peas. This booby prize allowed for a 1-in-5 chance of getting one question wrong and still walking away with all "valuable" prizes intact.

[edit] Car Smash

US season 2 (Also referred to as "60 Seconds of Destruction")

The contestant was awarded a car, and as in the first season, he or she had to answer questions to protect it from vandalism. However, instead of each question being worth a part of the car, the round was now timed. Jimmy asked the player three questions, which usually had multiple answers. After the first question was asked, a 60-second clock started. For the first 20 seconds, no damage was done to the car. However, once the pointer passed 20 and went into the "red zone", a bell sounded, and the first loser sprayed graffiti down the driver's side of the car (generally, a message making fun of one of the winning contestant's "quirks"). A second bell sounded, and the next loser ruined the paint job on the hood with a belt sander. Finally, a third bell sounded, and the remaining loser smashed the windshield with a sledgehammer. The player could pass; however, the losing players only stopped attacking the car when the winning contestant had completely answered all three questions or when the 60 seconds expired. One undamaged car was given away this season after a contestant answered all three questions in 22 seconds (the player with the spray paint did not make it to the car in time to start using it and was subsequently told not to do anything.)

[edit] Barrel Drop/Conveyor Belt

US Season 2

The player was shown a desktop computer (either an iMac G5 or a Sony VAIO), a large Sony Wega HDTV, and a Vespa Scooter. Carr asked the player three (usually multiple-answer) questions, each corresponding to a given prize. The player had as many guesses as he could give in 10 seconds to completely answer the question. If he or she ran out of time, the prize was destroyed. The player won the prizes in whatever condition they were in after all three questions were asked.

Barrel Drop version: A steel barrel filled with 1,000 pounds of concrete was suspended over the prize, and was slowly raised while time elapsed. If time ran out, the barrel was dropped onto the prize.

Conveyor Belt version: The prize was slowly carried by a conveyor belt toward a large red "X". When the prize approached a red light just short of the "X", a warning buzzer sounded, and if it reached the crosshairs of the "X", a wrecking ball immediately swung down and crashed into the prize.

[edit] Rope Burn

US season 2

Each of three or four prizes was placed under an anvil suspended by a rope attached to a device reminiscent of a Rube Goldberg contraption. The contestant had 20 seconds to answer as many questions as there were prizes. If the contestant did not answer all the questions in the allotted time, a blowtorch aimed at the first rope was ignited. The rope in turn burned, allowing the anvil to fall onto the prize and destroy it. The remaining torches were lit in 10 or 15 second intervals, depending on the number of prizes. As soon as all questions were answered correctly, any lit torches were extinguished, and the contestant won the prizes in whatever condition they were in at that point. (This is the only prize round where a contestant could still lose all of his or her prizes even if some of the questions were answered correctly.)

[edit] Notes

Two contestants in the US version have won cars in perfect condition (one in each season). One contestant has won a prize round with no prizes being damaged (playing 3-prize Rope Burn). Three contestants have had all their prizes destroyed (one playing Prize Plunge, another playing Barrel Drop, and a third playing 4-prize Rope Burn.)

The timed car round was played five times in the second season. The three rounds in which a Ford Mustang was featured all resulted in the car receiving the maximum damage possible, as the minute ran out before the contestant could answer all three questions. The two final rounds that featured a Volkswagen Beetle each had more successful contestants - one who only received two letters spraypainted onto the side of her car before getting the third question right, and the contestant mentioned above who won his car untouched [1].