Gamer Girls

This is a classic. I must have watched it fifty times over the years.

0:00 – “Our top winner in the showcase is Gay!”

It’s always hilarious. It’s a woman with the unfortunate name of Gay.

Maybe it’s short for something. Gayle? But why shorten a name that’s already one sylable?

https://www.babycenter.com/baby-names/details/gay-1808

There’s an interesting graph there showing the popularity of the name. It wasn’t very popular until the 1930s when the name really took off. I’m thinking that the word really gained traction in the 1930s. Wasn’t the decade called “The Gay 30s” or…something? Somehow the word “gay” is associated with the 1930s.

It maintained its popularity until the 1960s when it really fell off of a cliff. This coincides with homosexuals co-opting the word, of course. By 1973, NOBODY was naming their baby “Gay”. And it remains that way until today.

This all checks out. This episode of The Price is Right was probably from the mid 1990s. Gay appears to be in her late 30s at least. That gives her a birth year of about 1960.

Gay’s opponent on the Showcase Showdown is Jose. He’s in the navy. The Price is Right had a history of having military personnel on the show. They tended to be…how to be tactful…not the best and the brightest. And not to spoilt anything but Jose is no exception.

At the 10 second mark, Jose does a little Arsenio Hall “woo woo woo” rotating fist motion. I don’t know what it’s called but it was popular in the 1990s.

By the way, Gay is a dental hygenist, according to her t-shirt. She does have nice teeth.

Ew. I just read the rest of her shirt. “Dental Hygenists ‘Dig’…” something. I can’t see the rest of it. It’s either “Bob Barker” or “The Price is Right”, presumably. It’s probably not “anal”. But “dig” is in quotation marks to emphasise the joke. Do dental hygenists dig at teeth though? Scraping plaque, sure. But digging? What are they digging? I don’t want to think about it.

Oh, this episode is actually from 2006-2007. I wondered because one of the prizes is an LCD tv. But there’s an appearance of the 35th anniversary logo so that would make this 2006-2007. This must have been a contemporary episode when it was uploaded. It was uploaded in March 2007.

1:00 – A couple of Kawasaki motorcycles. There was also a living room set in this showcase. Gay, wisely, passes. Fuck this furniture. You know that one of the showcases is going to have a car in it.

So Jose has to bid. He looks to the audience for guidance, as is common on the show. So he’s obviously familiar with how the show operates. At least to this limited degree.

1:15 – “When I bid on the showcase, you mean for everything?” Bob, annoyed, says, “Everything.” So…maybe Jose isn’t familiar with the show. Then Bob immediately pressures Jose for his bid, as Bob was wont to do. He wasn’t there to mess around. It’s not one of these Who Wants to be Millionarire things where the contestant hems and haws for five minutes before giving an answer. Bob kept things moving.

1:45 – Jose bids $250,000. For two shitty motorcyles, a living room set, and a television. Who possibly told him to bid that? Was somebody saying $25,000 and he misinterpreted it?

Bob, incredulous, mishears him and says, “Two hundred and fifty dollars?” Jose corrects him and says “thousand.”

There’s immediate silence. The audience cannot believe what is happening.

So then Bob, even more confused, says “Two hundred and fifty thousand?” Jose goes back to the audience for advice.

Bob says, “Think about that for a moment now.”

For reference, there’s only space on the display in front of each contestant for five digits. So his bid wouldn’t even fit on the display.

Gay is completely giddy. She’s already imagining herself driving her new car.

2:00 – Then, out of nowhere, Jose says “sixty thousand.” Where is he getting these figures? He thought that the price of those motorcycles and the furniture was $250,000 and then suddenly he dropped down to $60,000? That’s a huge drop. It’s still way too high, of course, but he’s just picking numbers randomly. He doesn’t even know what he’s bidding on.

He’s probably, I don’t know, in his early to mid 20s. It’s possible that he’s never bought a car or furniture or a tv or any of this. I basically only know the prices of these things from the Price is Right. He’s clearly never watched the show. And he presumably joined the navy when he was 18. He doesn’t have to buy anything. He doesn’t know what things cost.

Bob accepts the bid of $60,000 because he wants to move things along. He shows Gay what she’ll be winning.

Unfortunately, the guy who recorded this cut her showcase out.

2:15 – Gay bids a dollar, of course.

Then we’re back from commercial. According to the label, Gay’s showcase was a ski boat. That sucks. No car. And who the fuck wants a ski boat? You’re just giving somebody a job to do, trying to sell that shit.

2:30 – Bob starts with Gay. Jose actually looks hopeful, like he has a shot at this.

Jose was over by nearly $40,000. Gay starts screaming, as you’re required to do on these shows.

The comments are hilarious.

• “Jose must have thought the models were being included..”
• “actually what happened is that he added up all the prices the audience was yelling which came to 250K.”
• “It would have been funnier if he bid higher for his 2nd bid. ‘Ok, Bob. You’re right. That was a ridiculous bid. What was I thinking? My REAL bid is gonna be….$488,600!'”
• “I think Jose just didn’t want to pay the taxes on the prizes. Good strategy”
• “Jose walked away thinking, ‘Dammit! I KNEW I should’ve stuck with 250,000!'”

But yeah, people in the military tend to be dopes. The military of course preys on the poorest and least educated members of society.