Wild 'N Out

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Nick Cannon Presents: Wild 'N Out

Wild 'N Out title card
Genre Comedy, improv
Creator(s) Nick Cannon
Starring Nick Cannon, DJ D-Wrek, others listed below
Country of origin USA
No. of episodes 28
Production
Executive producer(s) Nick Cannon
Running time 30 minutes (including commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel MTV
Original run July 2005 – Present

Nick Cannon Presents Wild 'N Out is a show on MTV starring Nick Cannon.

Similar in premise to game-type shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?, the show pits two teams of comedians: the "Red Squad", captained by Cannon and contains Katt Williams, and the "Black Squad" led by a celebrity guest, against each other in a series of improvisational comedy games. After three such games, the two teams square off against each other in the final round of the game called Wild Style, in which they must insult the other team member(s) within a freestyle rap in a style similar to 8 Mile. The comedians "beef" with each other, however some are impersonal jokes. Although, similar to Whose Line, the "points don't matter", the teams score one point per round victory during the normal rounds, plus one point per favorably judged punchline during Wild Style. Each episode also includes a musical performance, occasionally by the guest captain for the Black Squad. At times, the musical guest comes out just before Wild Style as the judge for the beefs.

When ratings for the first season proved to be successful, MTV requested 10 more episodes for a second season which premiered on February 2, 2006. Major changes were implemented for the new season including shifting the show location to Hollywood and the teams now compete for a "Wild 'N Out" Championship belt which if the Black Squad wins, the team captain gets to take home.

The first season of the show was officially released as a 3 disc "uncensored" DVD box set on 7 March 2006. The episodes are only somewhat uncensored, but not as much as the MTV episodes. The musical performances are completely cut as well. The first 2 discs contain the 10 episodes of the entire season (Episodes 1-5 on Disc 1 and 6-10 on Disc 2) with the 3rd disc containing special features including extra unaired games and bloopers.

Wild 'N Out season 3 has finished airing on MTV. Seasons 1, 2, and 3 can be seen in repeats on both MTV and MTV2, usually for overnight fill-ins. Additionally, 2 episodes of the show were produced specifically for Spring Break in Cancun, Mexico. These episodes also air on MTV and MTV2. Nick Cannon mentioned on Last Call with Carson Daly that they are (currently) working on a 4th season.

Contents

[edit] Games

  • R & Beef:

Each team is given a topic by the audience for a song the team has to make up and sing on the spot. The audience votes on which song is the funnier of the two.

  • Talkin' Spit:

The team captains each sit in a chair facing each other, holding in a mouthful of water. Each team's members in turn must act as if they are voicing their captain's thoughts and crack a joke in order to make the opposing captain laugh and spit out his or her water, thusly causing a spit take (even if the amount of water released is a tiny dribble, it counts as a "spit out"). The opposing team is credited with a point, and the team whose captain spits the least wins. There has been one variant on this game in which instead of the team captains sitting in the chairs 2 Wild 'N Out Girls were in the chairs and each team (captain included) cracked jokes (see Trivia for this particular version).

  • Star Sightings:

Two members of each team look through the studio audience for members that bear a striking, passing or humorous resemblance to a celebrity. DJ D-Wrek judges how funny each comment is; the team with the most bells wins.

  • You Can't Say That S--t!:

Two members of each team must come up with a call-and-answer joke. The first line must be completely innocent, while the response must contain a funny and nearly explicit double entendre.

  • 60-Second Sequel:

This game is usually introduced before the second commercial. Each team is given the name of a movie before the commercial, and has about 60 seconds (hence the game's title) to come up with a fake trailer for a sequel to that movie.

  • Got Props?:

Similar to the "Props" game in Whose Line, each team is given an odd item to use as a prop in as many ways as possible. DJ D-Wrek judges each use.

  • Questions:

Similar to Whose Line's "Questions Only", one member of each team at a time must follow a particular situation suggestion while only speaking to each other in questions. Any hesitation or non-question by a player awards a bell to the other team.

  • Tore Up from the Floor Up:

The teams pick members from the audience to participate in a "fashion show". Once the participants are chosen, each team selects 2 members to provide commentary on the members they have chosen. (Originally in Season 1 the teams had to take turns delivering the commentaries on only the people that their team had chosen. In Seasons 2 and 3 the teams can let fly with jokes on every single audience member involved in the game at any time)

  • I'm On the List:

Each team captain acts as a club bouncer, while the team members act as various celebrities, which the "bouncer" must identify from their partner's acting and behaviors. The identity of the celebrity will be posted on a video screen behind the captain so that only the team player, the audience and the home viewer can see it. The most correct answers within 90 seconds wins the round for their team.

  • That's My Dog:

One member of the team (usually the captain) is placed in an isolation booth. That player will act as Lassie's owner; the audience comes up with a situation that Timmy (the character from Lassie) might be in and what happened to him. Once the situation is set, the captain is released and another member of their team must act like Lassie and act out what happened. The team captain that figures it out quicker wins the round for his or her team.

  • Interrogation:

Set up similar to "That's My Dog", the team captain is again placed in an isolation booth. The audience comes up with a celebrity and a crime. The captain then comes out and is interrogated by two members of their team as if they are that celebrity and committed that crime; the captain must figure out who they are supposed to be and what crime they committed. The quickest team wins the round.

  • The Hating Game:

In this inverted version of the Dating Game, one "Bachelor" from each team is chosen while a female "contestant" (usually a celebrity visitor to the show's audience) asks questions to both bachelors. The "bachelors" must act as unlovable as possible, and the "bachelorette" must choose which of the two she would least want to go out on a date with.

  • Unhappily Ever After:

Played in a style similar to "60-Second Sequel", each team is given a nursery rhyme, fable, or children's story before the commercial break and must come up with a skit based on that story. The audience reaction chooses the funnier skit, which wins the round for that team.

  • Snap on These Shots:

Teams must come up with funny jokes or captions to a series of celebrity pictures. DJ D-Wrek judges the jokes.

  • World's Worst:

The audience members supply DJ D-Wrek with a list of occupations, and the teams have to come up with their idea of who would be the worst person in the world to ever hold that job.

  • Deaf-Jam:

The game plays in a similar fashion to "I'm On the List". The team captain acts as the DJ of a particularly loud club, and each member must pantomime the title and/or artist of the song they're chosen to request. (An example of this: In Season 1, with Cannon acting as the Red Squad's DJ, his fellow team member Rasika Mathur had to act out the song "Bump and Grind" by R. Kelly. So to get him to guess the title (unsuccessfully), Mathur tried a suggestive dance that only succeeded in distracting Cannon. Mathur joked that she just wanted to dance up against Cannon.) The team with the most correctly identified titles in 90 seconds wins.

  • Do Dat Dance:

Team members must come up with a new or modified version of audience-suggested dance moves. DJ D-Wrek judges each dance by signalling bell or buzzer and the team with the most bells wins the round A variant of this game is shown as a unaired game in the Christina Milian episode of the Season 1 DVD set (see "Trivia" for the variation).

  • Outgoing Message:

Team members must come up with an amusing outgoing message for the celebrity named. DJ D-Wrek judges each message with bells and buzzers and the most bells wins the round for the team.

  • Remix:

Each team takes a nursery rhyme or children's song suggested by the audience and does a hip-hop remix. The winner is determined by the audience reaction.

  • Couples Counseling:

Set-up similar to "I'm on the List" and "Deaf-Jam", each team captain acts as a couples counselor, while the team members act as various celebrity twosomes, which the "counselor" must identify. The most correct answers within 90 seconds wins the round for their team.

  • Crystal Ballin:

Each team must choose one member of their team to act as a "psychic" while another member goes into the audience and chooses random audience members to have ask the "psychic" to predict the future. DJ D-Wrek judges funny responses with bells and weak responses with a buzzer. The team with the most bells wins the round.

  • What Had Happened Was...

In this game each team is given a real life situation for which there is a seemingly negative reason (Example: President Bush needing to explain why the response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina was so mismanaged). The team must them choose one member to go and give a funny response as the reason the situation came to pass. Each response can begin with the phrase "What had happened was...", but it is not a set requirement. Good responses are awarded with a bell and bad ones with a buzzer. Most bells wins the round.

  • Let Me Holla:

Each team has members use their best pick-up lines on a Wild 'N Out Girl. Funny pick-up lines are awarded with a bell, corny pick-up lines with a buzzer. (Example: Leonard Robinson: "Listen here baby, you ain't never had herpes like this."

  • So Fly:

The teams have to try to score points by bragging about their team captain. Funny brags score a bell while weak ones earn a buzzer (Example: Mikey Day: "My man Rev Run is so fly..."/Audience: "HOW FLY IS HE?"/Day: "He's so fly, he's got a 50,000 dollar limit... on his library card!"

  • Lift Every Voice:

This game is a modified gospel version of "R & Beef" and "Remix". Each team (dressed in church robes) is given a particular topic about an audience member and the team has to sing a song on the spot about it. DJ D-Wrek and a "Wild 'N Out" Girl judge by audience reaction which is the funnier of the 2.

  • Who's Your Daddy?:

This game is played similarly to "I'm On the List", "Deaf Jam" and "Couples Counseling". The team captain has to identify whose celebrity child (real or imagined) the team member is pretending to be. Team with the most correct in 90 seconds wins the round.

  • Thanks for Nothing:

The game is a modified version of "What Had Happened Was..." In this game, the teams are asked to "accept" an "award" for a project that certain celebrities should not have been too proud to be part of (Example: On Kelly Rowland's appearance she was the Black Squad team captain and was ragged on for her feature film debut in Freddy Vs. Jason. Rowland's response: "$50 million opening weekend. Thank you ladies and gentlemen." For that, she scored a point for Black Squad). Funny responses get a bell with weak responses getting buzzed.

  • Dictionary:

In this game each squad is given a word from the dictionary and then one member of that squad has to use that word in a sentence with the only rule being that it has to be funny. Example: When the Black Squad was given the word "asinine", Corey Holcomb stepped up to the microphone and said, "Girl you better get back in the house. Your 'asinine' (ass is nine) months pregnant." Example: When the Red Squad was given the word "licorice", Mikey Day said (in an Asian accent) "Oh, there's a shooting star, licorice (make a wish)."

  • Before & After:

In this game the teams are given an event and they must act out what happened before said event happened and then what happened after the event. Funny responses earn a bell and weak ones get a buzzer.

  • A-B-C Deez Nutz:

This game is featured as an unaired game from the Season 1 DVD box set. Each team sends up one member and start a conversation based on a scenario DJ D-Wrek provides. The players go back and forth in conversation, but the rule is that the players must listen to the first letter of the first word in the conversation. The other player must begin the first word in their statement with the letter that immediately follows it in the alphabet. A point is scored if 1) a player hesitates, 2) the wrong letter is used, or 3) DJ D-Wrek calls for a stop to the conversation.

  • Pop Goes the Culture:

This game is an unaired game featured on the Season 1 DVD set. In this game the audience suggests the names of famous people in history and the team must then act out a scene that alters the story to give it a more current pop culture reference to the person mentioned (Example: When Red Squad was given William Shakespeare as a topic the story was altered to have him be assisted in writing one of his classic plays, Romeo and Juliet, from Will Smith). The audience must choose the better of the 2 scenes.

  • Plead The Fif:

This game was first introduced in Season 3. One member of each team takes the witness stand on set. Then, one member on each team asks the opposite team member on the witness stand an embarrassing question. If they could answer the question, they get a point. If they refuse to answer the question, they "plead the fif", thus the game's name, and the other team gets a point. (Example: Taran Killam to Nick Cannon when Big Boi was on the show: "What album did you like better, The Love Below or Speakerboxxx?)

  • Home Jeeves:

This game was first introduced in Season 3. It is similar to that of "I'm On The List", "Deaf Jam", and "Couples Counseling". The captain of one team pretends to be the driver of a limousine. Then, a member on the same team pretends to be a famous person riding in the back of the limo. The team whose captain who correctly names the most celebrities in 90 seconds wins the game.

  • Pillow Talk:

One player from each team sits down on a bed. DJ D-Wrek then tells them each celebrity they are going to be playing. They each take turns saying a funny thing based on the celebrity they are impersonating, but also relating to getting their "squabble" on in bed, as DJ D-Wrek says. Funny sayings get a point, while bad ones get a buzzer. The team that gets the most points wins the game.

  • Slanguage:

A representative from each team will converse a sentence depending from what city they came from while the opposing team will try to decode the sentence to laymen's term. For example, Shawty (from Atlanta) & E40 (from Bay Area)

  • Stop Hatin;

Two people from each team must say something to make a member from the other team hate on them if they hate then the other team gets the point.

  • WildStyle:

This game is played as a 'bonus round' at the end of every contest. Each team to the beat of the music lays down a punchline, usually a dis at a member of the opposite team, and if it's funny, they score a point for their team. Since the score is usually 2-1, it's easy for either team to take the win.

[edit] Guest stars

Notable guest performers and Black Squad captains and special participants include:

[edit] Cast list

Numbers indicate season appearance

[edit] Trivia

  • Besides Nick Cannon, the only cast members who appeared in all 3 seasons filmed and likely to appear in season 4 are Katt Williams, Affion Crockett, Nyima Funk, Leonard Robinson, Mikey Day, Spanky Hayes, Rasika Mathur, Rob Hoffman and DeRay Davis.
  • After 3 seasons, Cannon's combined win-loss record on the show is 17-11 (he finished Season 1 with a 6-4 record, finished Season 2 with a 7-3 record, and finished Season 3 with a 4-4 record.)
  • Broken down further, Cannon has had a better track record against the female celebrities that have appeared on the show than against male celebs. Cannon's record against male Black Squad team captains is 13-11 (or a .556 average) while he has achieved a perfect 4-0 record (1.000) against female Black Squad team captains (Christina Milian and Eva Pigford in Season 1, Kelly Rowland and Tyra Banks in Season 2). Additionally, Milian, Pigford and Banks are the only female Black Squad captains to score individual points in the WildStyle game.
  • The longest win streak in the series for Cannon and the Red Squad is 5 matches set in Season 2. After a 2-3 start to the season, Cannon and the Red Squad won the 5 remaining episodes of Season 2. The Black Squad team captain in those matches were, in episode order : Kelly Rowland, Mike Jones, Charlie Murphy, Wayne Brady, and Mike Epps. The Black Squad last won in the episode with Rev Run as the team captain. The streak was snapped in the Season 3 premiere with Big Boi from OutKast as the captain of the Black Squad.
  • The Championship Belt that became part of Season 2, which some could compare to a championship belt in professional wrestling, was similar in every episode with the exception of the Rev Run episode. In that episode, the belt looked like one that would normally be awarded in a boxing match (with a feather-like look to it; similar to the Rocky series).
  • Warren Sapp is the first Black Squad captain to give the Comedy Championship Belt back after winning it in WildStyle.
  • Andy Milonakis and Jamie Kennedy are the only white Black Squad captains so far. Andy Milonakis was the first to appear, and Jamie Kennedy was the first to win WildStyle and the entire game.
  • The single highest individual point scorer in a round of WildStyle is Talib Kweli, who by himself scored 8 of his team's total points for the game in the WildStyle round. (Before WildStyle, Kweli's team was down 2-1). Kanye West came in second by scoring 6 points for his team in season 1. (Both teams ended up with 9 points in the game). On the DVD release of the show, on the bonus disc, there is an extended version of the WildStyle battle in which West actually scores more, edited for time. Additionally, West was the first WildStyle participant to score multiple points in one turn when he first delivered a verse that scored against Cannon, Rasika Mathur and Katt Williams in succession, then followed it up by scoring 3 more points against Leonard Robinson, Affion Crockett, and the entire Red Squad on a second turn to close the game. In the original extended version of the game (on the Best of WildStyle) West's 1st verse actually was directed towards Cannon, Mathur, Robinson and Williams in succession but the edit removed the comment directed at Robinson.
  • The only cast members to appear in every episode of the series so far are Nick Cannon, Mikey Day, and Leonard Robinson.
  • Omarion's appearance on the show is the only where the black team won, while being down 3-0.(The black team would win 6-5.)

[edit] External links