Challenge Ant/Brian's Brain
Each week, a child would challenge Ant by asking him ten questions they had prepared (usually based on the week's showbiz news). For every one Ant did not answer correctly, the child won a prize, such as a DVD or video game.
At the end of the ten questions, the child would have the chance to gamble the prizes they had won for the 'star prize', which was usually a DVD player or games console. They then asked Ant a further question, called the "Killer Question", with an accompanying dramatic sound effect. If Ant answered incorrectly, the child and audience would chant, "you're thick, you're thick, you're thick, you're thick you are, you're thick, you're thick!" (to the tune of the opening lines of "Ole!" by The Bouncing Souls) and so on, and put a dunce cap on Ant's head. If, however, Ant answered the question correctly, the child would lose all their prizes, and Ant would be crowned "King of Common Knowledge", to the tune of Rockin' All Over The World, revelling in taunting the child, as he was crowned.
In later episodes, the child would get a 'consolation prize' of a handkerchief reading "I lost on Challenge Ant". Although most went forward with the Killer Question, only three challengers decided to go home with the prizes they had already won. Celebrity games were also played, and on Ant's birthday, Ant and Dec played together against their then girlfriends, Lisa Armstrong (who Ant married in 2006) and Clare Buckfield. The game was featured in the short-lived primetime show Slap Bang with Ant & Dec, (the forerunner to Saturday Night Takeaway) only this time played by elderly contestants.
A version involving Brian Dowling entitled Brian's Brain was introduced following Ant and Dec's departure.
Challenge Ant was presented by Declan Donnelly. When it was restyled as Brian's Brain, Cat Deeley became the presenter until she also left, and was replaced by Tess Daly.
In a memorable episode on Cat's last day, Cilla Black entered the studio at the part where Brian was supposed to enter, and announced that today they would be testing Cat's brain. On this episode Kirsty, who was a girl who often came onto the show, especially during Chums and The Secret of My Success, was the child asking questions. Another memorable episode featured Brian's sisters as the contenders, while a third featured the late Jade Goody.
Possibly the most famous question was, "What do baby cows drink?" to which Brian answered "Milk", although the official answer was water. This question was repeated on the one-off edition of 15 to Fun.
Read more about this topic: SMTV Live, Other Features and Competitions
Famous quotes containing the words challenge, ant, brian and/or brain:
“Seas of bright juice suffuse heaven.
The earth by the sky staid with, the daily close of their junction,
The heav’d challenge from the east that moment over my head,
The mocking taunt, See then whether you shall be master!”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“An ant on the tablecloth
Ran into a dormant moth
Of many times his size.
He showed not the least surprise.
His business wasn’t with such.
He gave it scarcely a touch,”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“... cooking is just like religion. Rules don’t no more make a cook than sermons make a saint.”
—Anonymous, U.S. cook. As quoted in I Dream a World, by Leah Chase, who was quoted in turn by Brian Lanker (1989)
“Why does man freeze to death trying to reach the North Pole? Why does man drive himself to suffer the steam and heat of the Amazon? Why does he stagger his mind with the mathematics of the sky? Once the question mark has arisen in the human brain the answer must be found, if it takes a hundred years. A thousand years.”
—Walter Reisch (1903–1963)