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Reality Bites

Reality Bites: The American Bible Challenge (With Jeff Foxworthy!)

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Rick, the pastor of Joshua's Place is in attendance at the show. He was prompted to start his ministry after he fell out of a tree, landed on his head, and spent five days in a coma. Nothing I can add to that narrative could possibly enhance it.

Commercial breaks are played out by the show's choir, who are as blandly inoffensive as Foxworthy himself. This show is probably hugely popular among agoraphobes.

The next round removes each team's strongest member and has Foxworthy ask the remaining two members questions. This time around they're asked questions about a clip of an adorable three-year old recounting the horrifying tale of Moses ("And then the Pharaoh killed all da widdle boys"). Foxworthy and the judges are pretty forgiving of some vague answers, which is in keeping with the whole Biblical theme, I suppose.

GSN appears to have solved the dilemma of making Bible trivia relevant to today's hip, urbane youth by associated with things like Twitter and...C.S.I.:

I know, right? Someone still watches that show?

The strongest members are then brought forward to compete and attempt to bring their teams into the "Final Revelation" round, which sounds a lot worse than it is. The two remaining teams are given ten minutes to bone up on the topic ("Animals of the Bible" for this one) before the last round, in which they answer as many questions as possible in a 60-second period. The winner gets $20,000 for their charity and moves on in the tournament, the runner-up gets $5,000. Still not too shabby.

When I was in middle school, I remember getting a Bible in class. I want to say they were handed out courtesy of a fellow student's parents, but does that really matter? The point is I, like dozens of my classmates, immediately turned to Revelations because that had the baddest ass stories. My teacher - my science teacher - commented on how young boys always liked to scare themselves with stories of the Dragon and the Beast.

At least these guys are doing it for charity.

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Peter Vonder Haar writes movie reviews for the Houston Press and the occasional book. The first three novels in the "Clarke & Clarke Mysteries" - Lucky Town, Point Blank, and Empty Sky - are out now.
Contact: Pete Vonder Haar