Before Tim & Eric, before Johnny Knoxville, before ritual public humiliation became a staple of American television, there was The Gong Show.
Every day on national television back in the ’70s, a little feller named Chuck Barris would trot out amateur “talent” acts to embarrass themselves for the delight of the audience. If you got through your act without getting gonged by a “celebrity” panelist — literally, they would hit a big gong with a mallet if you sucked — you might win a grand prize of $532.16. If not, at least you got to meet Jamie Farr. It was silly and chaotic and garish and joyfully vulgar. It was American AF.
When I was a kid growing up in a small town in Indiana, The Gong Show was a window into a strange new world. A world where a grown man could make a living by behaving like an absolute fool. A world where you could actually get something like this on television:
Chuck Barris taught me that you’re only young once, but you can be immature forever. He was ahead of his time. Rest in peace, crazy man.
P.S. The CIA denies that Barris ever worked for them, as he claimed in his autobiography. But that’s what they would say, isn’t it?