Refrigerator Copy
Column published the week of February 25,
2008 www.theleeonline.com © 2008, Lee Ostaszewski
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That Answer is...KABOOM! |
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By Lee
Ostaszewski Let’s face it, everyone lies. We don’t need more congressional hearings
on blah blah in blah to know that. In fact, the last person we could look
to and say they never told a lie was the father of our nation, our first
president, George H. W. Washington. If
he had been given the chance, he could have cleaned up on that new Fox show,
“The Moment of Truth.” “The Moment of Truth,” is one of those
television shows that comes along every couple of seasons and reaffirms in
all of us that deeply held belief that our society is whacked out. In case you haven’t seen the show yet,
“The Moment of Truth” gives contestants the opportunity to win large sums of
money by being just stupid enough to agree to come on a show and answer
highly personal questions in front of a national television audience while
hooked up to a lie detector. The trick
is that they must answer the questions truthfully. Although, from what I’ve seen of the show,
that isn’t exactly how it works, either.
More on that later. Actually, the contestants aren’t hooked
up to a lie detector while on camera.
They first answer about 50 questions off screen beforehand with a
polygraph machine. The results are
unknown to them. From those 50, they
are asked some of the questions again, only this time on camera, with a
studio audience present, and in front of a small group of family and friends
who soon grow to deeply hate this person. The family and friends provide moral
support that lasts approximately through the first couple of questions which
are usually embarrassing to the contestant but not necessarily upsetting to
anyone else. The questions fall in the
“Were you still a thumb sucker in high school?” category. But as the questions continue, they tend to
reveal information that makes the others start thinking, “Hey, wait a
minute. You did what?” For instance, one guy on the show was
asked if he ever made fun of his girlfriend’s parents’ ethnicity (she’s
Asian). He did. Another contestant was asked if he ever
stole money at work and blamed it on someone else. He |
did. And that guy’s boss was on the show
with him at the time. Just to be clear, being on this show and
bringing along your boss: bad career move. As the questions get more uncomfortable,
the contestant has the possibility of winning more and more money. In the meantime, with each new revelation
I, and most everyone else watching, starts realizing what a supreme jerk this
person is. This could be the first game show in
television history where by the time a contestant’s turn is over, they are
despised by everyone. I’m not too crazy
about the family and friends at this point, either. They never saw through this person? Nor am I thrilled with the host or that
creepy female voice that comes on and announces after each answer whether it
is true or false. It’s this weird
Orwellian voice, “That answer is...” then there is this annoyingly long pause
- you could file your taxes, that’s how long it is -
before she says either true or false. But leave it to me to find a silver
lining in all of this. I mentioned
early on that they must answer the questions truthfully or lose, but I
implied that this isn’t always the case.
Twice now I have seen contestants lose by giving what the creepy
female voice said was a false answer, but the contestant seemed totally
shocked by it. I know the show is all about exposing
lies, but I tend to believe the contestants more than the polygraph in these
two cases. First, their reactions were
authentic, and second, they already admitted to much worse. Why lie now? Someone needs to explain this too me. I need an expert, get me Roger
Clemens. The silver lining I mentioned
is that by the time they got hosed by the lie detector, I disliked them so
was glad they lost. By the way, the show’s producers sent a
letter to Clemens to see if he wanted to appear. I don’t think they heard back yet; Clemens
and his lawyers are probably busy in |