Hasta La Creative!

The Gong Show is back. Game show maverick Chuck Barris created and hosted the original, in which “regular folks” displayed their talents while D-list celebrity judges decided whether to bang an outsized gong and end the often (intentionally) wretched performances. It became an all-too-brief pop-culture phenom — and in many ways embodied everything that was wonderful and tacky about the Jimmy Carter/Disco era. Barris, perhaps the loopiest and most subversive M.C. in the history of the medium, frequently had to deny that he hosted the show while drunk or high. (Nobody believed him.) He later claimed he was a hit man for the CIA. (Nobody believed him.) The original show’s biggest star was The Unknown Comic, a guy who told bad jokes while performing with a paper bag on his head. Comic Dave Attell (not quite so unknown, as he’s starred on Comedy Central’s Insomniac) will host the updated version, sans bag. Though I’ve seen his latest headshots, and he might want to rethink that strategy. Ooh, was that a cheap shot? If you don’t like it, all you have to do is bang the … 
(((GONG!)))

—Posted by David Gianatasio