Trashed (game Show) - Ongoing Gags/jokes

Ongoing Gags/jokes

Trashed had several ongoing comedy bits that were emphasized, usually involving the trash theme and/or humiliating the contestants -

• The word "Loser" was used excessively in this show. At the end of the game, before the "consolation prizes" and winners' prizes were announced, host Hardwick would usually say something to the effect of "on Trashed, there are no winners, just losers!" A sound bite saying "Loser!" was sometimes used when a contestant got a question wrong; the word was also displayed on a screen during the bonus round if one contestant gave an invalid clue. The connotation was furthered with the Beck song Loser, which was popular at the time.
• The questions very often included bathroom or sexual humor; while commonplace for MTV, some of it was very clearly meant to test the boundaries of acceptable material on the network. This pushing of the envelope may go hand-in-hand with the experimenting with crudeness done on other relatively new MTV shows at the time, most notably Beavis and Butt-Head.
• Before the bonus round was played, the "rules" to the bonus round and a disclaimer were read at an incomprehensibly fast speed by the announcer as they scrolled rapidly across the screen.
• If a team won the bonus round, Mark the Trasher would shoot confetti onto the contestants through a modified leafblower from the balcony; later in the series he would begin shooting random objects such as regular pieces of paper through the leafblower, and finally this would occur whether the team won or lost.
• Songs played in the background while the end credits rolled included What Is Love by Haddaway, and Mr. Vain by Culture Beat. These songs were popular in 1994 and usually had a connotation of someone hurting someone else, further emphasizing the destructive nature of the show.