ABC should be ashamed of itself. It revived The Gong Show for the third time. As if that wasn’t appalling enough, the network not only needs to apologize to the American public for creating this trainwreck, but to the British public as well for Tommy Maitland, a fictional legendary British comedian allegedly played by Mike Myers. Maitland, who calls the audience cheeky monkeys, makes raunchy jokes about S & M safe words, has a picture of the Queen in his stage corner, and constantly waves the Union Jack like the UK won an Olympic gold medal, is a terrible British caricature.
As a huge fan of the original Gong Show, I was expecting ABC to focus on the potential shock factor that made Extreme Gong and The Gong Show with Dave Attell unwatchable. To ABC’s credit, it didn’t. Instead, the network aired a revival faithful to the spirit of the original Gong Show. Like the original, this version admits a contestant “has no place in civilized society, so naturally he’s on our show.”
For the uninitiated, The Gong Show is what America’s Got Talent would be if it didn’t take itself so seriously. The Gong Show replaces buzzers with a giant gong, scores contestants on a scale from 0 to 10, has a comically small prize of $2000.17 and a trophy, and revels in nonsense. In the first episode alone, we were treated to a man who sings “Shaving Cream,” another one who sang “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” a pianist/contortionist, and a husband and wife who spit banana pieces into each others mouths. This isn’t classy television, but that’s the entire point.
In the end, 2017’s The Gong Show is the most faithful revival to date, complete with a gaudy ’70s inspired orange set. However, an hour is too long for what is essentially a talent show for America’s Got Talent rejects. A half hour worked perfectly for the original, so there’s no reason for ABC to stretch every episode to double that length.
While parts of this revival are entertaining, your time is better spent skipping this and spending time with Chuck Barris, Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, the Unknown Comic, and the Popsicle Twins on YouTube.
I won’t rate The Gong Show because it’s an intentionally bad show with cheesy and ridiculous acts whose entire premise is “there is no accounting for taste.” There’s no real way to tell if it’s “bad bad” or “so bad it’s good.” Although, the original Gong Show is the latter and the newest version leans toward the former.
