Balls of Steel (TV series)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

A British game and/or reality show (though, to an extent, more of the latter), where a group of comedians compete to see who has the biggest "balls of steel" as judged by the Studio Audience. This, was done by performing some type of stunt that shows guts. Most of the time, however, these stunts were just elaborate and often over the top hidden camera pranks (although, one act always did their acts on-stage for the audience instead)

The show was a cult hit for Channel 4, lasting for three seasons and 19 episodes. Ab Australian version debuted in 2011, and some of the acts from the British version have also made appearances, making it a spiritual Spin-Off in a way.

Recurring acts on the show included:

  • Bunny Boiler, where Thaila Zucchi tries to flirt with someone ... in front of their existing girlfriend. (They were set up, of course)
  • The Annoying Devil, where the titular devil (Jason Attar in series 1, and Barrie Hall in series 2) just goes around causing trouble
  • Prank TV with Miss Lee, with Olivia Lee. Often involves squirting water at celebrities.
  • Militant Black Guy, who leads people into saying completely innocent terms containing the word "black", and then goes Samuel L. Jackson on them for being "racist."
  • Neg's Urban Sports, where Neg Dupree performs various activities of questionable taste under the guise of being a "sport", including trying to steal balls, throwing fast food at random people, or trying to ride on their backs!
  • The Pain Men, where Pancho and Pritchard inflict pain on each other on-stage.
  • Big Gay Following, where Eric Page tries to pick up and solicit sex from other men.
  • Alex Zane, who sets people up on game shows which would be downright impossible to win, or screwed up in some other way.

While some acts did cross over to the aforementioned Australian version (sometimes with different people, but sometimes the same), some new acts came in as well, including:

  • Flatmate Wanted, Rachael Coopes offers to share an apartment with unsuspecting individuals, but then reveals something a little interesting about herself that might change their mind.
  • The Very Foreign Correspondent, an Indian who goes undercover to try and expose the country's racial tensions against Indians, and constantly accuses people of being racist (gee, does that sound familiar)
  • And of course, they've had their own versions of Alex Zane as well (known as The Game Show Host from Hell); James Kerley in season 1 (host of Cash Cab), and John Burgess (host of |Burgo's Catch Phrase) in season 2. The funnier part, is that both of them have actually hosted actual game shows.
Tropes used in Balls of Steel (TV series) include:
  • Berserk Button: The idea behind Militant Black Guy.
  • Catch Phrase:
  • Don't Try This At Home: The point of The Pain Men. They do it, so you don't have to!
  • Jerkass: Pretty much the whole point of Annoying Devil.
  • Leitmotif: All of the main recurring acts have their own theme music; Alex Zane often entered to AC/DC, Olivia Lee had Duran Duran, Militant Black Guy had that "Fight the Power" song, etc.
  • Parody: Most of Alex Zane's shows are parodies of other game shows:
    • Alex Zane's Sex Contract Game is like The Dating Game, except that the 2 bachelors have apparently signed "legally-binding contracts" stating that the winner must have sex with the bachelorette later after the show. Alex had made sure that the victims saw the woman they'd be asking questions to before the show, because of course, she is switched out for an unattractive woman right at the last minute.
    • Say What You See with Me, AZ is mainly a parody of the famous You Say We Pay phone-in segment of Richard & Judy's daytime talk show, with a title referencing |Catch Phrase
      • The Aussie version did this one with John Burgess as Burgo's Big Picture Game. Which then proceeds to lampshade his previous role with "Phrase Catch" and "Say What You See" rounds
    • Alex Zane's Cleverness Game features "ordinary people with extraordinary knowledge of one subject." This one is probably his most blatant parody.
    • And then, his catchphrase "Nice to see you, yes it is" is a parody of Bruce Forsyth's famous catchphrase "Nice to see you, to see you nice!"
  • Rules Spiel: For "Say What You See with Me, AZ", "All you need to do is get the picture from the screen, to your eyes, to your brain, to your mouth, to my ears, to my brain, then to my mouth. It's that simple"
  • Making Love in All the Wrong Places: The Fuckers.
  • Spell My Name with a "The": Common with Alex Zane's game shows.
  • The Unintelligible: Whenever one of Neg's Urban Sports requires him to get some attention and/or freak people out, he'll generally start shouting random gibberish.
  • Unwinnable by Design: All of Alex Zane's rigged game shows are like this. Indeed, if they were winnable at all, there wouldn't be a point to the joke, right?
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