Deal?
I love the Olympics. I watch just about every possible minute of them. Even sports I normally wouldn’t care about are super-exciting when it’s the Olympics!
This obsession meant that for two recent weeks, I missed (but TiVo-ed) all of my normal TV programs. This obsession meant that I went to bed an hour or more later than I normally do, and was therefore somewhat tired every day. This obsession meant that I watched actual commercials.
And one of those commercials, which was repeated quite a bit, was for the show Deal or No Deal.
I try to tell myself that I’m totally not gullible. I always poke fun at Mike for being the target audience for ever ad ever shown on TV. I’ve witnessed him watch a Pizza Hut commercial and moments later turn to me and say, “Do you want to get pizza for dinner tonight?” I laughed at his gullibility. I thought I was impervious. I thought I could withstand the pressure.
“There’s just one question: deal or no deal?”
Well, crap. I was suckered in. So, finally, during a commercial break for the closing ceremonies, I programmed one of our numerous TiVo devices (Mike likes technology) to grab Deal or No Deal. It was a moment of weakness. I felt sorry for myself, but decided I may as well continue in that state.
[Aside: I've totally done this once before. Can we say, "You're risking the patient's life!" It's the price I paid for getting to watch my Red Sox win the World Series. At least we didn't pick up "Her father's the district attorney!" the year before.]
Last night, Mike was reading a book, and my brain didn’t really feel like being engaged, so I put on the first two episodes of Deal or No Deal. Oh. My. God. I totally thought it was an easy game, and that I could totally handle it, and I’d “win” because I’m good at math. Turns out that’s a load of crap.
There I was, sitting on the sofa, clutching a pillow and the corner of a blanket, yelling at the TiVo-ed taped television program. The first guy managed to push his luck all the way to over $300,000. The lucky bastard had only $25 in his briefcase. It was awesome. I wish I was him. Then, the poor second lady ended up with her case, which was worth only $5. I was so sad! I wanted her to win so badly! She seemed so nice!
So I’ve been thinking about what I would do, with the audience and my family and friends yelling at me, while Howie “I didn’t know he ran out of money” Mandel (quote from Mike’s dad) urges me to answer, “Deal or no deal?” I’d probably freak out and forget everything I ever learned about pot odds and any other kind of probability. You have to keep playing until you win the million! Right? But… if they offered me $100,000, there’s no way I could turn it down! Right? GHA! I don’t know what I would do!
And then they’d cut to commercial.
That’s one thing I did notice about the show – the obscene number of commercials. Luckily, I’m back to TiVo-land – the lovely land where commercials don’t exist. I can thrive here for at least a little while. Well, at least until baseball season starts. Then I’ll start my annual memorization of the local furniture store ads.
33 days!
you can play it online here:
http://www.nbc.com/Deal_or_No_Deal/game/
Oh, now that is dangerous. Very dangerous indeed.
Oh, dude! The first time I played, I won the Million! I should totally go on the show!
they just had casting calls. unfortunately i think it’s too late. fred and i have thought about doing it too. you should read the questions they ask though- totally weird! and fred would totally bail with an offer of 25,000 while i would hold out and end up with the 10 dollars in my suitcase.
I see no benefit to taking the first two offers, but after that I think I would have a very hard time turning down $50,000. Seriously, that’s a lot of money. Even with a good understanding of odds, the emotional input from the audience, family, and Howie would probably set me on “give me all the money” tilt.
So I’ve ventured over here from livejournal yay! I never knew you could play online! I love that show. Anyway, I played and I made a deal for $210,000 and it turns out my case had $75. The next case I opened had the $750,000 so I guess I made a pretty darn good deal. I also yell at the people on the TV. I have 3 or 4 episodes currently on my dvr waiting for me (gosh I’m never home anymore….)
The new episodes are so exciting! I have one waiting for me, and there’s another one tonight. I can’t wait!