Howie Mandel has a "White Elephant" on his hands...

[weaklink75]

And NBC is taking it for 7 eps...

[clemon79]

...and it ends with the Prisoner's Dilemma. Pass.

(Honestly, it might be interesting (for an episode or so, until I turn it off in disgust and go back to playing The Splatters) to see how Howie handles all of that. Reading the description it sounds like the producers are going to want to play it INCREDIBLY mean-spirited (and the PD at the end just ices that) and I don't think that fits Howie's temperament at all.)

[DoItRockapella]

Read the article...um...that's it? A Yankee Swap? And they're calling it "White Elephant"?

Well, I suppose it's no dumber than "Oh Sit!" (anybody know when\if that one is starting?)

[TLEberle]

We do a gift exchange at the Family Business every year. There are thirty people playing and it takes far too long. Aside from the share/steal final (ugh), I can't imagine wanting to watch. It works well on Big Brother and the like because it plays out as a part of a bigger challenge and they do it just one time.

NBC and a White Elephant game show? Looks like we already know who gets the shaft. (There. Got the obvious joke out of the way.)

[clemon79]

A Yankee Swap? And they're calling it "White Elephant"?

Yes, because most people do not know it as a Yankee Swap, they know it as that awful thing people do at Christmas where people buy White Elephant gifts.

(That's another thing. They're limiting their audience to people who actually think those things are fun, and people who like seeing other people get screwed, and I suspect the latter is a superset of the former. But Alex Davis will be all over this, so it will get some free pub.)

[DoItRockapella]

A Yankee Swap? And they're calling it "White Elephant"?

Yes, because most people do not know it as a Yankee Swap, they know it as that awful thing people do at Christmas where people buy White Elephant gifts.

Ah. I feel dumb now...

...but not too dumb, as I didn't come up with this show.

[BrandonFG]

The final two players will face a tough choice, based on the classic psychology experiment “prisoner’s dilemma:” They’re presented with a box filled with two life changing prizes. They must choose whether to share the gifts, or steal the other player’s gift but risk walking away empty handed.

Oh goody, I was always wondering when they would bring back Friend or Foe. Because what the world needs is more game shows where folks get screwed out of thousands upon thousands of dollars.

Sorry for the premature cynicism...I'm already turned off by the concept. The fact that it's in NBC's hands is just icing on the cake.

[clemon79]

Ah. I feel dumb now...

Well, no, you shouldn't, because you have it right. The term "white elephant" applies to the quality of the gifts themselves, which are supposed to be crappy or silly but often aren't because there's always at least ONE asshat in the group who either doesn't get it or needs to show everyone else up.

So I know WHY they're calling it that, because that's what people know it as, but then they are replacing the actual "white elephant" gifts with Life Changing Amounts Of Money(tm), completely missing the point of their title.

[TLEberle]

Sorry for the premature cynicism...I'm already turned off by the concept. The fact that it's in NBC's hands is just icing on the cake.

Never fear, Lord Hyphen; given their track record I'd bet my dog and lot that this is a week-long strap of shows and off to the dustbin of obscurity.

The sad/telling bit is that with even a little bit of beta testing, the production team would realize that the game is broken and unplayable. If you know that there's a single zonk prize in the bundle, the correct move is to steal a known good prize. If you don't know the comparative value of the prizes, you steal the most valuable prize out there and force the player to open another. And so on. First to open is always flying blind and disadvantaged because of it. The only way this is interesting is if you have similarly valued gifts that are difficult to compare.

[weaklink75]

Sorry for the premature cynicism...I'm already turned off by the concept. The fact that it's in NBC's hands is just icing on the cake.

Never fear, Lord Hyphen; given their track record I'd bet my dog and lot that this is a week-long strap of shows and off to the dustbin of obscurity.

The sad/telling bit is that with even a little bit of beta testing, the production team would realize that the game is broken and unplayable. If you know that there's a single zonk prize in the bundle, the correct move is to steal a known good prize. If you don't know the comparative value of the prizes, you steal the most valuable prize out there and force the player to open another. And so on. First to open is always flying blind and disadvantaged because of it. The only way this is interesting is if you have similarly valued gifts that are difficult to compare.

I'm thinking they may go that way- give every round a theme, then have more prizes than players, starting with one known prize (say this is "Howie's gift", and he always opens it before the first player in the round goes)- that way the first player in a round has a couple of options...

[That Don Guy]

Oh goody, I was always wondering when they would bring back Friend or Foe. Because what the world needs is more game shows where folks get screwed out of thousands upon thousands of dollars.

No - what NBC needs is a show where they can offer thousands of dollars in merchandise and be fairly confident that everybody walks away with nothing.

Seriously, this is the kind of show you would expect to see on 30 Rock with Jenna Mulroney hosting.  ("Oh, too bad!  You both end up with nothing!  Camera on me!")

(One thing I can almost guarantee - if, somehow, they do pick up the show for another season, the minute a contestant decides to "share" in the final round only to have the opponent not only "steal", but then make fun of the player for giving up his prize, so the loser not only goes home with nothing but is branded either an idiot or an easy mark (or both) by everyone who knows him, the light bulbs will go on throughout America; "under no circumstances do I share".)

[TLEberle]

(One thing I can almost guarantee - if, somehow, they do pick up the show for another season, the minute a contestant decides to "share" in the final round only to have the opponent not only "steal", but then make fun of the player for giving up his prize, so the loser not only goes home with nothing but is branded either an idiot or an easy mark (or both) by everyone who knows him, the light bulbs will go on throughout America; "under no circumstances do I share".)

And that's where the "dilemma" comes in. I played ten rounds of this with a friend, and as long as he cooperated so did I. The moment he defected I would do whatever he did last time. He had no such strategy, and I clobbered him in the final tally.

This worked brilliantly on Solitary because there was no escape and actual tangible stuff was being taken away. It will be (once again) stupid-dumb and Foul TV here.

[PartyWeDo]

I have created several white elephant gift exchange variation during my work with AlbinoPhant. The key to success for this style of party game is the fun banter that is created as the gifts are opened. The most successful parties involve sharing gifts that are "conversation-starters" along with people who are comfortable sending verbal barbs between themselves.

I am not sure how the TV version will be able to recreate these two components of a successful white elephant party.

When I reported on Howie's plans for the White Elephant game show I made the suggestion that they will need to tell the real story of ancient Siam in order to properly set the stage. In Siam the white elephant gift presentation was a very valuable and important event.  Unfortunately we have changed the original meaning of white elephant gifts into something entirely different - so changing the story might be difficult.

As a white elephant gift exchange expert, I am thrilled that Howie is attempting to make an adaptation of the game... I will be anxious to see how it goes, and I wish him success.

[TLEberle]

Who's up for some canned spiced meat or playing flag football on a synthetic surface? That and I disagree with our very recently minted new member's opinions. On several fronts.

That and s/he got the story wrong: the white elephant was presented as a gift by the king of Siam to people that had done wrong, not good. The King would make a show of this wonderful gift, and the courtesan couldn't very well say no. So the King gets to look generous for giving a gift, he gets to divest an elephant, and the courtesan gets to take home a rather large poop machine who will eat anything in sight, make an unholy racket and destroy whatever he gets near. Imagine if Groo the Barbarian was twenty times bigger. The gift is not meant to be a "conversation starter" or to facilitate zingers, it is meant to be an excuse to get rid of the stuff that clutters up your shelves and closets, and you just toss out/donate whatever you win. (Though the idea of my uncle hanging onto the zero value Target gift card I put in once fills me with cackling delight.)

Go find the Simpsons episode Bart Gets an Elephant for more detail and nuance.

[clemon79]

Man, you gotta give the guy some credit; doing a little Googling, it's obvious he is NOT afraid to spam himself.

Doesn't look like this is the first business he's done it for, either. It's actually interesting...you can't really call it astroturfing, because he isn't pretending to be independent from the business he's promoting. (Though I *do* think his lone interest in participating in the discussion was to get the plug in for his business.) Spam, though...well, time will tell, but I suspect he's gotten his hit and run in and we won't be seeing more participation from him.